New research confirms what many of us already knew, children with autism spectrum disorders are more likely to be bullied

The lead author of a new study, Paul R. Sterzing, said, “The rate of bullying and victimization among these adolescents is alarmingly high.”  It seems that those on the higher functioning end of the spectrum who are placed in regular classrooms are at the highest risk for being singled out.  Data from the new study indicates that about 46% of students in the survey with autism were bullied as opposed to only 10% of students without autism.  Interestingly the rate of perpetration of bullying is about the same for those with and without autism. Read more about it at well.blogs.nytimes.com here:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/03/school-bullies-prey-on-children-with-autism/

See the abstract of the article in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine here:
http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1355390