Several studies have demonstrated that children with ASD are at a significantly greater risk for being bullied by other children or classmates than typically developing children.

Reason
The inability to understand social cues, difficulties expressing emotions and showing hypersensitivity to external stimuli like colours or noises can lead to them being easy targets for being bullied in school.

Scientific evidence
The latest meta-analysis on this research topic was conducted by Inhwan Park and colleagues in 2020 which discussed the prevalence and risk factors for bullying among children on the ASD spectrum.  Benjamin Zablotsky in 2014 too examined risk factors for bullying from a survey conducted with 1221 parents of children diagnosed with ASD. The prevalence for bullying in ASD children was as high as 67 %.

High Risk factors identified are

•  Children attending a public school.
• Pronounced deficits in social and communication skills.
• Presence of comorbid conditions along with ASD.
• Children showing high autistic traits.

This study emphasizes the need for developing interventions to counter bullying especially in younger children diagnosed with ASD.