60 per cent of Asperger's kids bullied, says NAS

The National Autistic Society (NAS) has released alarming figures today, claiming that 40 per cent of autistic children and 60 per cent of children with Asperger's syndrome experience bullying at school.

Research was carried out as part of this week's nationwide anti-bullying campaign in order to highlight the devastating impact bullying can have on children with autistic tendencies and their families.

Over 80 per cent of the parents asked said the bullying behaviour had badly affected their child's self esteem, with over 50 per cent admitting that their child had truanted from school or moved schools altogether to avoid it.

Most worrying of all, 44 per cent of the parents asked said they believed the schools were not doing enough to help their child. One parent even told the charity: "My child is bullied… the school says it is his fault for being 'annoying'."

These failings have also been picked up by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education (HMIe), who discovered that most teachers in mainstream schools lacked a proper working knowledge of autism.

Schools minister Jim Knight told the BBC: "It is important that schools nip prejudice-based bullying in the bud. We want to ensure that schools have the information and support they need to prevent it happening in the first place and the powers they need to stamp on it when it does occur."

NAS has demanded that social skills training be made more widely available for those with autism and that schools should tackle this form of bullying by targeting the bully and not, as it believes happens now, by just attempting to help the bullied pupil.

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