ASD and Getting Bullied - WHY MANY ASD PEOPLE GET BULLIED (Part 1/7)

My dictionary defines bully (noun) as “A person, esp. a schoolboy or schoolgirl, who hurts or intentionally frightens weaker people.” and bully (verb) as “To act like a bully towards, often with the intention of forcing someone to do something.”

Whilst it’s clear to many that these definitions are rather basic, it’s also important for people to realize that for ASD people, there are additional complexities on top of what already exists for NTs.

Of all of the formally diagnosed ASD people I’ve met in person, pretty much all of them have been bullied at some point, even as adults. The ways they’ve been bullied isn’t particularly different from that of NTs, but the presence of an ASD makes them much more vulnerable and sensitive to such suffering to the point where it becomes a ubiquitous, ie near 100% guaranteed experience.

I’ll try to explain this increased vulnerability as best as I can based on personal experiences, observation, and from speaking to other ASD people. In short, from how I see it, the (increased) vulnerability of ASD people to bullying is essentially a combination of:               

                - NEUROLOGICAL WIRING (NEURODEVELOPMENT)

                - ACQUIRED KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS

                - ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

In this basic model, all 3 categories are inter-related, influencing each other for the positive or negative. Even the factors within a category can affect each other. Significant deficits in any category without sufficient compensation from the others greatly increases the chances of bullying occurring and/or adverse outcomes from it. It’s difficult for me to quantify the impact on a factor from one category on another, but I’ll try to list as many as I can (how Aspie of me), and then explain some relationships.   

NEUROLOGICAL WIRING (NEURODEVELOPMENT)

Given the heterogeneous nature of ASDs, ASD children / adults develop at various rates. What is universal though is the relative developmental delay of various skills, particularly social / linguistic. My impression is that the altered neurological wiring (as with ADHD) results in a relative frontal lobe deficit compared to NTs which underlies several of the symptoms.

                1.  Speech delay, statistically reduced verbal fluency.

                2.  Initially reduced language pragmatics, a tendency to take things literally with difficulty understanding the intended meaning by the speaker due to the context and external cues.

                3. Focusing on details initially, difficulty integrating the information and seeing the big picture.

                4. Initially reduced “TOM” (Theory of Mind towards NTs), ie reduced ability to understand the true intentions of the NT, again influenced by context and external cues.

                5. Initially reduced ability to read social situations and to follow (arbitrary) hierarchies as established by NTs.

                6. Relatively more repetitive behaviours, routines and cognitive rigidity, more difficulty being flexible in (social) situations. More likely to have a preference for narrow interests and orderliness. Tendency to brood/hyperfocus on things (inc. things that made them angry or upset).

                7.  Lower threshold for sensory overload and meltdowns (further exacerbated by any communication issues). More likely to be irritated by direct eye contact.

                8. Strong preference for honesty, dislike of dishonesty, superficial rules/norms, and perceived injustice.

                9. Relatively poorer short-term memory / Executive Dysfunction.

                10. Relatively poorer motor skills (esp. in childhood)

ACQUIRED KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS

                1. Internal algorithms for communication / different Social Situations, Social Scripts. A lot of “polite” or “flowery” phrases (as deemed by NTs) have to be rote memorized because they’re less literal and are often more lengthy.

                2. Intellectualization of socio-emotional (including adult) issues & rules that would more likely be intuitive to NTs. A lot of it is acquired by rote memorization.

                3. Problem solving strategies / Troubleshooting, including those relating to First Principles so they can be generalized to other areas and / or be used in Emergencies.

                4. Pattern-recognition abilities, that are applied to both social and non-social situations, to facilitate the use of learned Internal algorithms and Problem solving strategies. Helps recognize danger too. Helps promote internal comfort due to perceived repetitions of previously seemingly un-related phenomena.

                5. Knowledge of personal strengths and weaknesses (esp. from life experience) and numerous attempts. Understanding why one does the things they do and how to maximize productivity and happiness.

                6. Knowing how to incorporate newly acquired knowledge to internal database and known paradigms.

                7. Coping mechanisms for meltdowns, stress, burnout, knowing when to move on / have a break / seek help.

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

                1. Parents

                                - Educating the ASD child.

                                - Personal beliefs (may help or irritate ASD child).  

                                - Support, monitoring & feedback.

                                - Implementation of home environment amenable to ASD cognition.

                                - Access to a Specialist (Paediatrician, Psychiatrist, Psychologist etc).

                2. School

                                - Staff (knowledge of ASDs / bullying, supervision of students in classroom and breaks, care factor, student & work-loads, communication with parents, presence of teaching aides).

                                - Students (awareness of ASDs, level of diversity, upbringing, internal disposition).

                                - Anti-Bullying Policies, enforcement of it.

                                - Extracurricular and lunch-time activities.

                                - “School Culture”.

                3. Workplace

                                - Anti-Bullying Policies, Diversity Policies, enforcement of them.

                                                - Willingness to provide workplace accommodations.

                                - HR (care factor, level of bureaucracy).

                                - Staff (awareness of ASDs, upbringing, internal disposition).

                                - “Work Culture”.

                4. Adult Society (extremely basic)

                                - Public awareness of ASDs and care factor.

                                                - The ability to differentiate between aggression and (provoked) meltdowns in ASD adults (esp. by Police and Healthcare Staff).

                                - Laws on Disability Discrimination and implementation.

TBC...