Autism Spectrum Disorder Case Study

The world is filled with many different people, and every person is unique. There are many commonly perceived ways humans are different from one another: hair color, size, and eye color to name a few. There is a small set of the human race, however, which is classified as special needs. While these people can be just as friendly as the typical person, they may seem too different at times to the rest of the community. Because of their differences, there often exists prejudice and even discrimination against these individuals. Because many mental disorders can be considered special needs, this paper will primarily look into individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). These individuals are teased in schools for irregular speech and behavior

Because autistic people often have irregular speech and behavioral patterns, their peers often bully them. This makes school a dangerous place for their well-being. These individuals have little to no friends, and have to spend the majority of the week at a place where they are rejected or bullied by everyone but the teachers. “Recent research suggests that middle and high school youth who were bullied typically turn to their friends for support… (Waasdorp & Bradshaw, 2011). Yet children with ASDs typically have few friends to whom they can turn for support (Bauminger et al., 2003),” which shows the only place where these individuals can find support is with their family and with the teachers (Zablotsky, Bradshaw and Anderson). In their study Zablotsky, Bradshaw, Anderson, and Law surveyed parents to evaluate their children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and see how involved with bullying they were. The study only compared children with ASD to each other, so it does not represent the total population. The data does, however, state, “Those diagnosed with Asperger’s… were more likely to be victimized in the past month. … and those diagnosed with Asperger’s…were more likely to engage in bullying behavior in the past month,” meaning not only are those with Asperger’s experiencing bullying, they are also more likely to be bullying others compared to other ASDs. This study did have limitations, with the biggest being the

The first kind is inclusion.” Inclusion occurs when students with disabilities are taught in the general education classroom with non-disabled peers or when they participate in extracurricular or nonacademic activities with students without disabilities,” according to the article “The Top Ten Things New High School Teachers Need to Know About Servicing Students with Special Needs“(Laprairie, Johnson and Rice). This can be both helpful and hurtful at the same time to the individuals. While they are given a chance to socialize with their peers, they are also given more chances to be bullied by their peers. In this case, they are forced to pretend to be normal in order to gain acceptance. The other option is a dedicated special needs classroom. While this allows for a healthy environment for these individuals to learn, they will spend their educational life separated from their peers. What makes this a problem, is though they avoid bullying, they are required to learn social skills through their own efforts. While schools are doing their job to make sure the special needs population is getting a proper education and exposure to their peers, true acceptance has not yet been reached and it may never be reached. As much as these individuals need to be accepted for their differences, society may always reject them. These people did not choose to have a mental disorder, and they need to