In this blog I will be detailing Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their experiences with maltreatment. I will be doing this by incorporating articles that center around this topic as well as personal experiences and things that I’ve learned over time working with children and adults with ASD and other intellectual disabilities. Within this I discuss how factors such as burnout and inadequate resources coupled with parents who lack the patience and experience to deal with these children often aren’t able to fulfill their needs fully.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are a very vulnerable group, they are also at a heightened risk for maltreatment due to their lack of self-advocacy and autonomy skills. In a study conducted by Virginia Tech university they looked at information collected by the Department of Social Services (DSS) and the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) network, this study looks at the commonality and severity of maltreatment among over 3,100 children with an ASD and ID. They looked at behavioral correlates to measure maltreatment in the children (Lightfoot, E., & Slayter, E. 2014).

This study found that significantly higher odds of maltreatment and substantiation of maltreatment in children with ASD only when looking at the behavioral correlates of these children like aggression, yelling, self-harm, tantrums and other forms of projection from these children (Lightfoot, E., & Slayter, E. 2014). They found this information by looking at information from the DSS of South Carolina. While they found the highest odds of maltreatment and substantiated abuse in ASD only children, there was a larger chance of abuse in all children exhibiting ASD or ID compared to the control population group (Lightfoot, E., & Slayter, E. 2014). They attribute this due to the interplay of individual, environmental, and parental factors such as stress effecting the overall maltreatment risk when it comes with continued interaction (Lightfoot, E., & Slayter, E. 2014).

Source: Lightfoot, E., & Slayter, E. (2014). Disentangling over-representation of parents with disabilities in the child welfare system: Exploring child maltreatment risk factors of parents with disabilities. Children and Youth Services Review, 47(Part 3), 283–290. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2014.10.001

There are many factors that play into child maltreatment, especially when looking at children with intellectual disabilities (CID). These children, on top of the normal stresses of life the parents face, usually require more attention and are often harder to work with than children without an intellectual disability (O’Sullivan, D., Watts, J., & Shenk, C. 2018). This article cites how the consistent workload a parent faces with a child with an intellectual disability can often weigh on them and cause them to feel immense pressure to support their child even when they feel they cannot adequately do so. While normal parenting can provide stresses such as providing for their child and balancing work and helping their child develop autonomy as they grow up, when a CID is involved, there is often more conflict due to increased support needed as well as financial obligations that usually exceed that of raising a child without intellectual disabilities (O’Sullivan, et al. 2018) . These obligations include things such as special supervision, specific care at school, often late nights with mom and dad trying to decipher homework and contextualize it. This doesn’t even begin to encapsulate how parents who were abused are more likely to abuse their own children based on our current literature on child maltreatment (O’Sullivan, et al. 2018). The best way to stop child abuse is to stop showing it to our children but despite this we still see the chain of abuse continuing throughout time. This is very true of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities as well as these children often put more stress on the household and the parents specifically.

Source: (O’Sullivan, D., Watts, J., & Shenk, C. 2018). Child maltreatment severity, chronic substance abuse, and disability status. Rehabilitation Psychology, 63(2), 313–323. https://doi.org/10.1037/rep0000196

Children with intellectual disabilities are shown to be 8 times more likely to experience emotional abuse, this was from a study conducted by Nancy Murphy MD of the University of Utah (Murphy, N. 2011). It discusses how children are the most vulnerable demographic in our world by far and when a child has a condition such as an intellectual disability it makes them even more vulnerable. Children who have these disabilities have a higher chance of facing sexual abuse due to their mostly non-verbal nature and lack of advocacy for themselves. Because of this most of the data we have for sexually abused children with intellectual disabilities is incomplete and likely less than the actual numbers as children alone have a lot of trouble reporting these things much less children with an intellectual disability (Murphy, N. 2011).

Murphy, N. (2011) Maltreatment of children with disabilities: The breaking point. Journal of Child Neurology, 26(8), 1054–1056. https://doi.org/10.1177/0883073811413278 .

I grew up living behind a group home for adults with special needs and it really changed how I looked at that community. I found from talking to them that a lot of them were brushed aside by their families and struggled to survive for much of their lives. Many had stories of being kicked out of the home at a young age and finding a community of people like them to help keep them safe. While some had good families as well, they would also tell me that from a young age they were often bullied and verbally abused outside of the house by people who didn’t understand them. This shows how we kind of shrug off people with disabilities in society as we see them as not useful or a distraction when really they are a vital part of our community and provide us with a deeper understanding of humanity and how we all view the world. They provide a unique perspective that is often taken advantage of in a time where we need to lean on each other for support. Once I got to college I started interning at a place called Social Clubhouse which is a day center for mentally ill, chemically addicted patients who need daily rehabilitation, we would provide classes and food for the patients and would often work with them to find careers and opportunities in the community for them. One thing I learned from working here is that these people were often neglected growing up, many of them hadn’t ever brushed their teeth or didn’t know how to bathe themselves, often a result of having multiple siblings and a parent who couldn’t take care of everyone. This gave me a little more perspective on how things like poverty can influence abuse, the largest form of abuse is neglect and I would see it constantly in the people who would come in, people who were dejected, given up on by their own families, and don’t believe in themselves. A parent must lift a child up, and if they don’t, they are effectively putting the child down. Think about it, if your own parents don’t care about you, how can you try to care about yourself.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.