Autism + ADHD = Bully?

Most parents worry about their children being bullied. Some of us also worry about our children being bullies, or at least having their actions and reactions interpreted that way. Researchers wondered if children with autism were particularly likely to bully, and they found something unexpected: According to survey responses from parents, just having autism did not increase the likelihood of being a bully, but adding ADHD to the mix increased the likelihood four times.

The University of Rochester researchers expected that autistic kids would bully more because they tend to be male, may be aggressive, and have probably been bullied themselves. (One wonders if stories about school shooters being autistic also factored in to those suppositions.) What they found instead was that children with the autism/ADHD combo were bully-er than kids with either autism or ADHD alone. Impulsivity, wiry energy, and an inability to connect with other people's feelings are a bad mix, apparently.

The conclusion of the study is that kids with this double-dose of "a" diagnoses should be given special monitoring and assistance to keep them from being the "b" word. It'd be great if this took the form of behavioral supports in school, and of behavioral supports being taken seriously, and of children not being bullied by administrators when those behavioral supports are not in place and the child acts up. Analysis of behavior would be helpful, too, to discern true bullying from, say, pushing a kid who gets too close, or being led by others to do unwise things, or responding to frustration.

But probably? It will just make people more wary of kids with these diagnoses, and more quick to blame them when something goes wrong. Which specifically makes the problem worse than better, thanks.