Today, April 2nd, is World Autism Awareness Day. Autism, though it affects tens of millions of people worldwide, is not widely understood. In fact, according to the Secretary-General, many people with an autism spectrum disorder have to face discrimination on a daily basis.
A recent survey of U.S. children found 63 percent of parents report that their child with autism had been bullied, with children with Asperger’s bullied most among responders. The researchers also found these children were three times more likely to be bullied than their siblings who do not have autism.
“”To experience teasing, taunts, ostracism or other forms of spite may make a child who was already struggling to cope become completely unable to function. These survey results show the urgent need to increase awareness, influence school policies and provide families and children with effective strategies for dealing with bullying,” Dr. Paul Law, director of the IAN Project at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, said in a statement.
“We hope that this research will aid efforts to combat bullying by helping parents, policymakers and educators understand the extent of this problem in the autism community and be prepared to intervene,” he adds.
This comes just days after the CDC’s latest report that approximately one out of 88 children have an autistic spectrum disorder. That’s a 23% increase from previous estimates, and a 78% increase over the previous five years and a 1,000% increase over the last four decades.
For more coverage of World Autism Awareness Day, and to find out all the latest developments in autism research visit CBSNews.com.
