Do you believe that school should be a safe space where children can learn and socialize with their peers? What can you do if you discover that school is not a safe space for your child who has been diagnosed with autism? Children with autism may be particularly susceptible to bullying. Ideally, school is a safe space for children, regardless of their academic abilities or social skills. Unfortunately, school can sometimes be an environment where children feel unsafe because of the way they are treated by their peers. When a child's peers continually say hurtful things or do things that embarrass the child, it is called bullying.[1] A recent study reveals that children with autism spectrum disorder are bullied almost five times more often than children without an autism diagnosis. of the spectrum, making higher-functioning children who attend mainstream classes easier targets for bullies. Children with autism exhibit characteristics such as repetitive behaviors and/or stimming[3], an inability to understand social cues when interacting with peers, talking, and/or obsessively focusing on particular topics , an inability to communicate fluently, a frustration that usually leads to frequent problems. meltdowns and overly sensitive to changes in routine, rules or environment. These characteristics can make autistic children targets, but the one characteristic that seems to attract bullies to autistic children is the autistic child's conversational ability.[4] "Children with autism who could speak well, for example, were three times more likely to be bullied than those whose conversational ability...... middle of article......Medicine, Pediatrics: Involvement in Bullying and Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders and Correlates of Involvement in Bullying Among Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Paul R. Sterzing, PhD, MSSW, Paul T. Shattuck, PhD; Sarah C. Narendorf, PhD, MSW Mary Wagner, PhD; November 20126. Psychology Today: Fending Off Bullies, 20137. The fight-or-flight response, also known as the acute stress response, refers to a physiological reaction that occurs in the presence of something terrifying, mentally or physically The fight or flight response was first described in the 1920s by American physiologist Walter Cannon. a chain of reactions occurring rapidly within the body helped mobilize the body's resources to deal with threatening circumstances. -or-Flight response?, 2014