Bullying said to be worse for older children

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Bullying gets worse as children with autism get older

Bullying often gets worse for most kids once they get older, not just autistic ones. This is because the bullies learn new ways and often get better at hiding their tracks. And of course, there are also those who don't care if they're caught. Sure, on average an autistic person is more likely to be targeted than an NT, but it's often very bad for those NTs that do get picked as targets.

That would explain my situation . I was teased at prep school , but the real, nasty, verbal bullying started when I went to public school at 13. There were undoubtedly back then signs of what we now call either ASD or Asperger's .

It's sad that 44 years on from when I was at school this is still a problem. It makes me wonder what's being done to tackle the problem.

I wasn't bullied at all as a little kid, but as soon as I got to high school that was when the bullying started. In year 7 and 8 my cousin's friends were verbally abusive to me, starting up conflicts that needn't have happened. I was also picked on when walking home from school, by some older girls. In year 9 I suffered a lot of social rejection from my classmates, and I felt lonely and miserable. And in year 10 and 11 I got sexually harassed by YOUNGER boys whilst walking home from school. Also my so-called friends were really bitchy towards me, playing mind games and just being awkward and childish. It was hard too because if you're seen on your own too much you'll start getting bullied at lunchtimes. So I tried hard to attach myself to friends but it was hard when they didn't want me around. I tried making new friends, but that didn't work out, as it ended up with me in trouble like I had committed a crime.

And I've been bullied in early adulthood too.

When I look back, I was probably bullied more in primary school than when I was older. But when I was primary-school age, my social awareness was so poor that I just didn't recognise it as bullying - I just seemed to think "oh, some humans doing something that I don't understand again", and get incredibly perplexed about what the purpose of it was. One of the few clear memories I have of that time was working out that body-language was a thing - I got picked on because I stood and walked strangely and did odd things with my hands, and it made me wonder why anyone would go around watching how people move or what they did with their hands (aside from to dodge a thump, of course!)

It got to me much more when I was older. I got into the odd fight, but I was never really physically bullied; however, I always attracted stupid put-downs, questions or jokes intended to highlight how I wasn't "street-wise", and people trying to wind me up hoping that I'd react and get myself into trouble. It was the relentlessness of it that got to me, rather than any specific incident being a particularly terrible ordeal.

And, as Joe90 said, it didn't stop when I became an adult. Some of the workplace bullying I've received and seen done to others has been far worse than anything I saw in the school playground.

Worst bullying for me was 5th grade through 8th grade and the first two years of college.

When I look back, the bullies were usually the problem kids at school. Most of them later got in trouble with the police. Today, with the advent of social media, and the anonymity it affords kids, nearly everyone is a victim of bullying, or a perpetrator, sometimes both.

I was bullied a lot in grade school and middle school, but most of the time the bullies got no punishment.

When I was bullied at public school ,and my village vicar wrote to the school about it, my housemaster said I was the sort of boy to invite bullying.

I think a key difference is that kids on the spectrum are bullied not only by their peers, but teachers, parents and the world in general.

Some parents take their child out of a school if their child is being bullied. It was the done thing for children whose fathers work for the Foreign office to go to prep and public school . If they'd moved me it would have been to another public school, and most likely I would have been bullied there too.