Reply #13: Please don't mistake my tone here

[d_r]

There is no doubt that kids with autism are at risk for being bullied. These results document that concern, and point out the need for serious efforts to confront this. There are a couple of problems with these findings that should be noted however. One, there is a selection bias here - this is not a random sample, and parents who had problems with bullying were more likely to take the time to respond, which skews the results. Second, there is no comparison to children who are not autistic. Many of those children's parents would report that they have been hit, kicked or chased and so on. Still this report documents there is a problem and hopefullly will result in increased attention to that issue. I have no doubt whatsoever that the difficulties that children with autism face draw the attention of bullies who victimize these children.