Peer Advocacy Programs Reduce Bullying of Special Needs Students

Bullying is destructive and hurtful no matter the age of the victim. From young children on the playground to adults in the boardroom, bullying causes low self-esteem, depression, poor performance and a whole host of other issues.

 

When the victim has special needs, the effects can be even more devastating. According to the Interactive Autism Network, more than 60 percent of children on the Autism Spectrum have been bullied at some point. Children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are particularly vulnerable to bullying; the behaviors associated with ASD, including poor social interaction skills, repetitive behaviors and emotional outbursts are common targets for bullies who want to establish power over someone else. Children with ASD have experienced everything from teasing and taunting to behaviors designed to trigger an outburst, all for someone else’s amusement.

 

Increased awareness of ASD has gone a long way toward curbing bullying behaviors, but concerned educators and parents realize that there is much more work to be done. One of the most successful means of stopping bullying behavior among young people involves going right to the source: the children themselves.

 

Peer Advocacy In a Nutshell

Educators who work with special needs students have an in-depth understanding of ASD and how best to work with these children. Other students do not have that understanding, but what they do have, in most cases, is an innate sense of right and wrong, as well as a natural propensity for compassion.

 

That’s why some advocates have developed peer advocacy programs specifically designed to give students the tools they need to stop bullying behaviors. Essentially, peer advocacy means that one (or more) students acts on the behalf of another. The action might include telling the bully to stop, reaching out to the victim to offer support or calling a teacher or other adult for help.

 

Experts believe that peer advocacy is so effective because not only are children more likely to see bullying behavior than adults, but there is great power in their influence. A fellow student telling you to stop teasing someone, or advisingthe victim to tell an adult, likely has more impact than an adult offering the same advice. In addition, training kids to identify and respond to bullying behavior helps educate children on what is and is not acceptable and might prevent them from doing or saying things that could be considered bullying themselves.

 

The Basics of Peer Advocacy

An effective peer advocacy program requires more than simply telling children to tell a bully to stop or to notify a teacher when they see bullying. Particularly in the case of special needs students, children may not be able to effectively identify all types of bullying or how to respond appropriately.

 

For those reasons, special needs–focused peer advocacy training should involve:

 

• Explaining what bullying behavior is, and how it affects victims. Children should understand why they intervene, so when they see bullying they will feel more compelled to take action.


• Improving understanding of the group for which they are advocating. For example, children with ASD often have trouble interpreting facial or verbal cues and therefore may misinterpret awell-meaning remark. Again, improving understanding not only helps peers adjust their own behavior, but it also helps them identify a problem. If they know that a classmate begins moving their arms in a certain way when they are upset, and they see that happening on the playground, they will know to investigate and intervene rather than stand idly by.


• Training in the options for intervention. Sometimes children do not act on another’s behalf because they aren’t sure what to do. By outlining the various options for getting help, they will be better equipped to help when need be.

 

Many schools are implementing peer advocacy programs as a part of a larger school-wide anti-bullying or zero-tolerance program. However, because the needs of ADS students are so unique and specific, it’s important for such programs to have specific measures in place to handle bullying cases that involve them. Training and encouraging students to advocate for their peers is a good place to start and will make a significant difference in reducing the amount of bullying overall as well as producing compassionate, kind and responsive individuals.

Categories: advocacy programs, autism spectrum, bullying, bullying behavior, bullying behaviors, Children, improving understanding, nbsp, peer advocacy, special needs

Are We Equipped to Help Adults with Autism?

While autism is a health concern you usually associate with children and young people, the disorder is likely to continue to affect sufferers’ wellbeing right through into adulthood. This is according to a wealth of wellness experts and researchers in the field, who note that the US healthcare system isn’t equipped to deal with the rising numbers of adults with autism. They add, however, that some individuals with autism may be able to surpass their non-autistic counterparts at university and beyond.

 

According to the US Centres of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States, it is estimated that one in every 88 children has an autism spectrum disorder. Autism researcher Paul Shattuck, from Washington University in St. Louis, notes that this means 45,000 to 50,000 kids with autism turn 18 each year. Dr. Joseph Cubells, director of medical and adult services at the Emory Autism Centre at Emory University in Atlanta, explains, ‘This is an impending health care or community care crisis. The services that are available vary from state to state, but often the resources just aren’t there.’

 

The National Alliance on Mental Illness states that, if you have an autism spectrum disorder, you are entitled to services from your public school until you reach the age of 22, at which point it is up to you and your family members to find educational or employment opportunities and appropriate living arrangements. However, wellness experts point out that the programmes for adults with autism are already thin on the ground, and this is likely to get worse as the increasing number of children who are being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders grow into adults.

 

The problem with treating or helping people with an autism spectrum disorder is that the needs change from person to person. Cubells clarifies, ‘We say autism as if it’s a single thing, much like we say cancer, but, within the general category of things we call cancer are brain tumours, lung tumours, pancreatic tumours, and each requires different treatments. Autism is very individual. It varies from one extreme where someone needs custodial care for their entire life to the other extreme where someone is a highly functional, successful person who may be regarded as being a little quirky. There are some common themes, but there’s really nothing that applies to every single person.’

 

With regards to higher education, if you’re on the higher-functioning end of the spectrum you may still be able to go to university, albeit still facing certain challenges. ‘There’s often a substantial mismatch between verbal skills and performance skills,’ Cubells says. ‘You can be highly intelligent and able to do complex math and abstract reasoning, but you don’t know how to ask someone out for coffee. Having to make friends, schedule meals, and get to class without help can be like hitting a brick wall for a lot of people on the spectrum. I often tell people with Asperger’s that they have to learn in words what most people learn intuitively.’

 

However, colleges do often provide services such as peer mentorship programmes to help ease people with autism into college life. Moreover, Shattuck and his colleagues have recently found that people on the autism spectrum are more likely to choose a science, technology or mathematics degree than people without autism, and these types of careers may be just the ones where autistic individuals find the most success. Cubells explains, ‘People on the spectrum can focus on the details. In jobs that would be hideously boring and tedious to most of us, like jobs where you spend hours alone, having a social deficit can be a real strength.’

Categories: adults, autism, autism spectrum, Disorder, nbsp, people, spectrum, spectrum disorder, university, wellness experts

Could Autism be More Related to Environment than We Thought?

Your child’s mental health may be more linked to his environmental wellness than previously thought, according to researchers at Stanford University. Their new study in twins, published in July’s Archives of General Psychiatry, found that environmental factors may play a larger role than shared genes in the development of autism, while a second study in the same journal discovered that one potentially important environmental trigger is taking anti-depressants during pregnancy.

 

For the first study, 192 pairs of twins from a state-wide California registry of children were identified as receiving services for developmental disabilities. The researchers examined and tested each child to confirm that at least one twin was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Of the twin pairings, 54 were identical (sharing all of the same genes) and 138 were fraternal (meaning they only shared half of their genes). Lead study author Dr. Joachim Hallmayer, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioural science at Stanford University, said it’s not surprising that the identical twins were more likely to each have autism, since they share all the same genes, but if autism was 100% due to genetics then both siblings in each pair of identical twins would have it.

 

The researchers explained that the twins’ shared environment, be it in utero or in early life, has to play a major role in their wellbeing in this way. The researchers calculated that genes account for 37% of the risk of “classic” or severe autism and 38% of the risk of milder autism spectrum disorders. This means that environmental factors form 55% of your child’s autism risk and 58% of his risk for an autism spectrum disorder. Hallmayer admitted, ‘I was very surprised. The environmental influence is stronger than I thought. It doesn’t mean that genes don’t play a role, but they may not play as big a role as thought.’

 

Dr. Gary Goldstein, president and CEO of the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, pointed out that the results of the study confirm how important it is for researchers to investigate autism’s environmental triggers. He commented, ‘I think everyone in the field believes that genetics are important to autism and that the environment must also be involved. But we don’t know exactly what those environmental factors are, and how those factors interact with the genes. This study gives further support that we should be looking at both genes and the environment.’

 

A second study, this time carried out by researchers from Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Programme in Northern California, found that if you take antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) during pregnancy, your child risk of autism increases two-fold. Moreover, if you take these drugs during the early stages of your pregnancy, your child’s autism risk is three times higher than the children of mothers who don’t use the antidepressants at all.

 

However, Dr. Natalie Meirowitz, chief of the division of maternal foetal medicine at Long Island Jewish Medical Centre, advises against flushing your medications if you suffer with depression, even if you’re expecting. She explained that your wellness, and your baby’s, is at risk to the depression itself, as depressed women may self-medicate with drugs and alcohol, have a poor diet, fail to keep their prenatal appointments, and be unable to care for their baby after delivery. According to Meirowitz, ‘Pregnancy is a very emotional time for women, and we know that a woman who stops her medication needs a lot of support. The decision to stop medications has to be made very carefully with the patients’ psychiatrist, obstetrician and with their significant other. It shouldn’t be made lightly.’

Categories: antidepressants, autism, autism risk, autism spectrum, environmental factors, genes, identical twins, Research, spectrum disorder, stanford university, study