How to Teach your Child with Autism to Handle Bullies

Don’t follow my example.

That’s my advice when it comes to this example. All kidding aside, I have explained why so many times in my two books that it became extremely exhausting. However, I’ll try my best to see what I would have done differently.

Never have been a huge fan of the bullying stuff; and I do not speak for everyone but I can very well imagine a large majority of people do not want to be bullied. Same with people who would want to talk about it; I know I am one of those people. But I’ll still share.

It is not an easy topic to talk about really. Always feel like I have to be extra careful on what to say in providing advice. I will do my best. The first thing I would do when being bullied is to not say anything and avoid eye contact; Avoiding eye contact gives bullies some extra unneeded attention and it is best to avoid them the best you can.

It's not fun being around them, and after such a terrible experience, it is always important to tell someone they trust like a parent or a teacher. Even before experiencing a bully, an idea would be to report to parents on everything that has happened during the day at school. Every day after coming back home, I believe it is important to give out reports on what happened, no matter what. Good things, bad things, very bad things, and even things that students may not know of yet and worth asking questions about. Like what a prom is.

Start saying what has happened and it will feel much more comfortable to talk about bullying. Plus, it is a good way to be social too when you talk about the things that have happened in school. Important to know that bullies are vulnerable to teachers. Great teachers and principals want school to be a safe haven for their students; It is the students’ responsibility to report any bullying activity. That is how community is being built. It’s okay. Talk to your parents and your teachers about any suspicious behavior and harmful activity.

This is as much as I can say about bullying, and believe me, I have thought about this long and hard about the subject. Not easy to talk about, but I do believe in the easy solution. Practice talking to respected adults about the topic. It’ll be okay. I’ve seen moments where people have been bullied either offline or online, and every time these things happen, I just wish I could just go in there and say:

“Hurt me, not her.”
“Hurt me, not him.”

Just my way of saying “I got your back”. I know what it is like, and no one deserves this kind of treatment. I have mentioned the subject of bullying plenty of times in my two books. I cannot change people, but what I can do is encourage the alternatives. If anyone wants to take out all of the aggression, find the alternative ways of doing it. Boxing for example; Anything physically and emotionally draining that would feel good afterwards. I remember feeling well after destroying a house before it was going to be bulldozed. But please, for goodness sake, talk to your parents and your teachers about these things. You will feel much better afterwards. If you need help on talking with teachers or your parents, ask them how. There are absolutely no stupid questions. All questions will be answered.