Running head: CYBER-BULLYING AND CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES
Cyber-Bullying and Children with Disabilities
Andrew Bartholomew
Peter Magnuson
Jenna Rossetti
Michigan State University
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Cyber-Bullying and Children with Disabilities
A. Mrs. Chresta Brinkman, Colorado Hands & Voices
B. Mission and Purpose, Roles / Responsibility
According to the Colorado Hands & Voices website, the organization is:
…dedicated to supporting families with children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing
without a bias around communication modes or methodology. We’re a parent-driven,
non-profit organization providing families with the resources, networks, and information
they need to improve communication access and educational outcomes for their children.
Our outreach activities, parent/professional collaboration, and advocacy efforts are
focused on enabling Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing children to reach their highest potential
(Mission statement, 2010).
According to Mrs. Brinkman, her role is to “connect with referrals that come to Colorado
Hands & Voices for families who have a child who has been identified as having a Unilateral
(one sided) Hearing Loss. When I receive a referral I call the family and share our family story
of our son, Noah, who was born with Goldenhar Syndrome and presents with Hemifacial
Microsomia resulting in a moderate to severe hearing loss in his right ear. The family then
shares their story with me and I am able to provide support and advocacy to them regarding their
immediate and future needs (personal communication, July 15, 2013).”
C. Statement of Challenge / Requested Information
Mrs. Brinkman has developed a “desire to learn more about bullying and the prevalence,
prevention and impact on children who have special needs.”
In pursuit of her desire to learn more about cyber-bullying of special needs children, Mrs.
Brinkman would like the group to help her gather information about “the occurrence,
description, impact, and prevention of cyber-bullying with children who have special needs
(personal communication, July 15, 2013).”
D. Summary of Scientific Research Related to Challenge
OCCURRENCE / DESCRIPTION: In our search to quantify how often cyber-bullying
occurs in relation to special needs children, we were able to find studies that discussed bullying,
in general (but not necessarily cyber-bullying), on special needs children. In one of these studies
by Twyman et al. (2010), the authors examined quite a wide range of special needs children.
They examined children with learning disabilities, attention deficit or hyperactivity disorder,
autism spectrum disorders, behavioral or mental health disorders, and cystic fibrosis (Twyman et
al., 2010). The authors compared these groups to a control group and found “significant
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victimization.” Their conclusion was that “children with special health care needs may be at
higher risk for bullying, victimization, and ostracism (Twyman et al., 2010).”
Another study by Mishna et al., (2012) of general middle and high school students “found
that over 30% of the students in this study identified as involved in cyber bullying, as victims or
perpetrators, and one in four of the students (25.7%) reported having been involved in cyber
bullying as both bully and victim during the previous three months (Mishna, Khoury-Kassabri,
Gadalla, & Daciuk, 2012).”
One study did help shed some light on the likelihood of bullying disabled victims. The pacer
site states that “children with disabilities were two to three times more likely to be bullied
than their nondisabled peers (Bullying, 2012).” Rose & Simpson (2013) added that
“victimization and perpetration for older students are less than younger students over the middle
school and high school years, however, students with disabilities report higher rates of bullying,
fighting, and victimization throughout their educational career (Rose & Simpson, 2013).” The
Hear-it website (no date) estimates that “between one in three and one in five hearing impaired
students become victims of bullying.”
IMPACT: There was a scarcity of articles which dealt with both cyber-bullying and children
with disabilities. In the Kowalski & Fedina study, they looked at a very specific group of
children; those with either ADHD or Asperger Syndrome. Their conclusions were not exactly
startling: “Individuals not involved with bullying showed greater levels of physical and
psychological health relative to those involved with bullying (Kowalski & Fedina, 2011).” One
notable aspect of the study was that “Parents and children disagreed on a number of issues
related to use of the Internet (Kowalski & Fedina, 2011).” This could suggest generational
discord between perceptions and beliefs of how and for what purposes technology is used. Many
young people use technology in a way that older generations might see as invasive or consuming.
Older generations are sometimes alarmed at just how much information younger generations are
comfortable putting out on social media. The amount of information shared online could
contribute to making one a target for bullying.
Cyberbullying seems to be associated with lower self-esteem for both the victim and the
perpetrator (Pactchin & Hinduja, 2010). The Hear-it website (no date) cites the American
Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (2008) as stating, “bullying may adversely affect the
social and emotional development, as well as the school performance of the young victims
(Hear-it, no date)”. Mishna et al. (2009) believe that “Cyber bullying often feels especially
invasive because victims can experience it in their own home – a place where they should be
able to feel safe (Mishna, Saini, & Solomon, 2009).” Of the focus groups they studied, all
students from 5th to 8th grade, some “characterized online bullying as more serious than
‘traditional’ bullying because of the associated anonymity.” The Safety Network website (2011)
corroborates this disconnect, stating “In many cases, children do not consider particular acts of
behaviour to be cyberbullying. For example, saying hurtful things or passing on images are not
seen as bullying [by some children], because they happen in cyberspace as opposed to face-toface (Safety Network, 2011).”
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PREVENTION: A number of preventative strategies are being advocated. For special needs
children, van der Zande (2012) recommends families create a safety plan that involves these
points:
Integrate the teaching of personal safety skills along with other skills in your dayto-day life.
Make a Safety Plan for how to get help everywhere you go and review that plan
until you are sure that everyone understands
Teach children to speak up for themselves if they can and teach everyone who
comes in contact with vulnerable children how to be their advocates.
Be realistic if your child is likely to wander off and does not have the ability to
follow a safety plan or communicate with others.
Protect your family’s emotional safety from the thoughtless unkind things that
others sometimes say and do.
Take responsibility for the ways in which your child might cross the boundaries
of others.
Make time for the children in your family who do not have special needs to learn
age-appropriate personal safety skills.
Take care of yourself (van der Zande, 2012).
Kraft & Wang suggest that “removing the offender’s access to social networking sites and
the parents taking away the offender’s computer and cell phone would be the most effective
preventative strategies (Kraft & Wang, 2009).”
The Safety Network (2011) outlines prevention strategies for four types of cyber-bullying.
The paraphrased highlights are as follows:
Mobile phones: Providers often have call centers or procedures in place to deal with
bullying. A child’s number can be changed if necessary. In addition, certain phones allow the
blocking of individual numbers (Safety Network, 2011).
Social Networking: Facebook has reporting procedures and a safety center for official
reports of bullying, but they also have ‘social reporting’ that allows regular users to report
offensive content (Safety Network, 2011).
Video/Picture sites: YouTube has similar mechanisms for reporting as Facebook (Safety
Network, 2011).
Instant Messaging/Chatrooms: Formal reporting is available, but victims need to remember
to save their chats in order to provide potential evidence of bullying (Safety Network, 2011).
E. Possible Solutions for Organization’s Challenge Based on Scientific Research
Findings
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Prevention of bullying special needs children would seem likely to run into many of the same
problems as bullying in the general population. All of the typical anti-bullying tactics should be
used: school programs that try to create empathetic students who’ll step in when they see
bullying, and programs to make the educators aware of the serious consequences of bullying. In
addition to these programs, van der Zande’s safety plan would seem to offer practical advice for
families with special needs children (van der Zande, 2012). One unique aspect to cyber-bullying
is the ability to shut down or block access to the technology needed to carry out attacks. Many
social networking sites / services have anti-abuse policies. Additionally, parents can be recruited
to help deny access to these tools (Kraft & Wang, 2009).
F. Revision of Solutions Based on Feedback from Professional
Given the feedback from our professional, we endeavored to create a “hot sheet” filled with
recommendations and resources for staff, parents, and students.
G. References
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References
Abilitypath. (2011). Walk a mile in their shoes. [online] Available at:
http://www.abilitypath.org/areas-of-development/learning-schools/bullying/articles/walk-a-mile-in-their-shoes.pdf [Accessed 12 Aug 2013]
Bulent, D., and Didem, A. (2010). Parental attitudes as a predictor of cyber bullying among
primary school children. International Journal of Human and Social Sciences, 5(10), 649653.
Cartoon Network. n.d.. What should you do if your deaf or had of hearing child is bullied?.
[online] Available at: http://www.dcmp.org/ai/bullying/dhh_web.pdf [Accessed: 10 Aug
2013]
(2012). Bullying and harassment of students with disabilities. Retrieved from
http://www.pacer.org/bullying/resources/students-with-disabilities/
Hear-it. n.d. Hearing impaired youngsters more likely to be bullied. [online] Available at:
http://www.hear-it.org/Hearing-impaired-youngsters-more-likely-to-be-bullied [Accessed
09 Aug 2013]
Kowalski, R. M. and Fedina, C. (2011). Cyber bullying in ADHD and Asperger Syndrome
populations. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 5(3), 1201-1208.
Kraft, E. M., and Wang, J. (2009). Effectiveness of cyber bullying prevention strategies: a study
on students’ perspectives. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 3(2), 513-535.
Limber, S. P. (2007). Bullying among children and youth with disabilities and special needs.
Retrieved from http://www.ldonline.org/article/20001/
McCrone, W. P. (2004). School bullying: a problem for deaf and hard of hearing students?
Odyssey, 5(2), 4-9.
Miller-Perrin, C. L., & Perrin, R. D. (2013). Child maltreatment: An introduction. 3rd Edition.
Sage Publications, Inc: Thousand Oaks, CA..
Mishna, F., Khoury-Kassabri, M., Gadalla, T., and Daciuk, J. (2012). Risk factors for
involvement in cyber bullying: Victims, bullies and bully-victims. Children and Youth
Services Review, 34(1), 63-70.
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Mishna, F., Saini, M., and Solomon, S. (2009). Ongoing and online: children and youth’s
perceptions of cyber bullying. Children and Youth Services Review, 31(12), 1222-1228.
Mission statement. (2010). Retrieved July 17, 2013, from
http://cohandsandvoices.org/about/mission.html.
National Deaf Children’s Society. (2013). Available at: http://www.ndcs.org.uk/
Pactchin, J. W., and Hinduja, S. (2010). Cyberbullying and self-esteem. Journal of School
Health, 80(12), 614-621.
PeaceBuilders applauds governor brown for signing cyber bullying prevention law. (2011, Jul
13). Business Wire. Retrieved from
http://ezproxy.msu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/876181708?accoun
tid=12598
Rose, C. A., and Simpson, C. G. (2013). The bullying dynamic: direct and indirect involvement
of students with disabilities [PDF document]. Retrieved from http://deafed-childabuseneglectcol.wiki.educ.msu.edu/file/view/2013_CEC_Rose_Simpson_For_Participants.pdf/42253
5888/2013_CEC_Rose_Simpson_For_Participants.pdf
Safety Network. (2011). Helping you understand what cyberbullying is and how it can be
prevented. [online] Available at:
http://www.safenetwork.org.uk/help_and_advice/Pages/cyberbullying.aspx [Accessed: 11
Aug 2013]
Safety Network. (2011). Support services for young people experiencing bullying online. [online]
Available at: http://www.safenetwork.org.uk/help_and_advice/Pages/cyberbullyingsupport-services.aspx [Accessed: 11 Aug 2013]
Twyman, K. A., Saylor, C. F., Saia, D. E., Macias, M. M., Taylor, L. A., and Spratt, E. (2010).
Bullying and ostracism experiences in children with special health care needs. Journal of
Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 31(1), 1-8.
van der Zande, I. (2012). Bullying – common questions and answers from kidpower. Retrieved
from http://www.kidpower.org/library/article/bullying-questions-answers/
van der Zande, I. (2012). Kidpower safety plans for children with disabilities. Retrieved from
http://www.kidpower.org/library/article/safety-plans-disabilities/
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H. Communication Log
Communication Log
Team 7: Jenna Rossetti (33%), Andrew Bartholomew (33%), and Peter Magnuson (33%)
Bright Spot: Mrs. Chresta Brinkman
DATE
TIME
TOPIC SUMMARY
Jenna (Team Communicator) introduced herself on the discussion board to
Andrew (Team Researcher) and Pete (Team Writer). She says that she will
be emailing the team bright spot within the next week. She also tells the
other team members to check out Mrs. Brinkman’s wiki page to learn more
about her. She closes by asking Andrew and Peter if they had any questions
for the bright spot, to let her know and she will ask Mrs. Brinkman.
7/9
Dr. Johnson hadn’t put the link up for Mrs. Brinkman’s wiki page so Jenna
commented again to disregard her statement about checking out Mrs.
Brinkman’s wiki page.
Dr. Johnson answered Jenna’s first discussion post by saying that he would
put up a second link for Mrs. Brinkman as soon as possible.
7/10
7/11
Andrew replied to Jenna’s discussion by introducing himself.
7/11
1:47pm
Jenna initiates contact with Mrs. Brinkman via email: introducing herself
and her team; thanking her for her participation; questioning the best way
to contact her; and requesting the information necessary to complete Team
Report #1.
7/11
Jenna posts a second topic on the discussion board. She tells Andrew and
Pete that she has emailed Mrs. Brinkman and also ‘cc’ed them in that email
so they may read what she wrote. She says that she will let them know
when Mrs. Brinkman responded.
7/12
Dr. Johnson replied to both discussion posts that Jenna had created. In the
first post, he said that he had finally put up Mrs. Brinkman’s wiki link and in
the second one, he says that he believes that our team will learn a lot from
our team bright spot.
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7/12
2:03pm
Mrs. Brinkman promptly replied to Jenna’s email: She had attached a
document that had all the necessary information to complete our first team
report.
7/15
Jenna posts again on the discussion board, titling it “First Email Back”. She
lets the team know that she has received a reply from Mrs. Brinkman with
all the necessary information to complete Team Report #1. She says that
she will email Andrew and Pete the document that Mrs. Brinkman had send
her with all the information they needed.
7/15
Jenna sends Andrew and Pete a copy of Mrs. Brinkman’s document via
email. She also reminds the team of all the content that must be included in
12:30pm that report.
7/16
Dr. Johnson replies to Jenna’s “first email back” post. He said that the team
was on the right track and added some reminders about the format of
Team Report #1.
7/17
Andrew replies to Jenna and Pete via email. He said that it looked like Mrs.
Brinkman had answered everything we needed to know for our first report.
He wanted to know what else he could do to assist with Team Report #1.
7/17
1:46pm
2:30pm
Peter responds to Andrew’s question via email: He said that there wasn’t
much that Andrew could do on this initial report. He said that he would
send out a draft of the first report to Jenna and Andrew once he got out of
work.
Andrew emailed a draft of Team Report #1 to Jenna and Andrew to look
over. He asked if Jenna wanted to add the communication log to his word
document.
7/17
5:31pm
Jenna said that she did not need Pete to attach the communication log to
his document because there was a separate drop box for it.
Mrs. Brinkman replied to Jenna’s “first email back” post. She glad that
Jenna received the document and that she’s excited to hear more from us.
7/17
Dr. Johnson also replied to the post. He reminded team members that all
group members need to assist the team researcher (Andrew) with the
research process.
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Jenna responded to Dr. Johnson. She asked if it was okay for her to
complete the communication log in Microsoft Exel.
Pete sent an email to Andrew and Jenna to let them know that he had
posted Team Report #1 to our wiki page.
7/18
12:08am
Jenna replied promptly to let Pete and Andrew know that she had posted
the Communication log as well.
Dr. Johnson posted on the “first email back” discussion board. He said for
the team members to look at the feedback given to us on Team Report #1
and Communication Log.
7/19
Dr. Johnson posted on the discussion board to remind team members to
use APA format and to get our research material from professional
references only.
7/25
Mrs. Brinkman also posted on the discussion board to let team members
know that she would be out of town that weekend and that if they needed
to ask her any questions to try to email her before then. She said she would
be free the following week until the next weekend to answer questions.
7/28
11:43am
Andrew sent Pete and Jenna a document via email that had all of the
information he had found to use in our final paper. This document had
links, important quotes, and other helpful information. He asks if there is
anything else that he could do to help with the writing process and that if
Pete and Jenna had any questions to just email him.
Andrew posted to the discussion board letting team members know that he
had sent them both an email with all his research information.
7/29
Jenna posted on the discussion board. She said that the research Andrew
did was great. She wondered if there were any questions for Mrs.
Brinkman.
7/29
7/30
Andrew sent out an email asking Pete and Jenna if any progress had been
made on our Team Report #2. He reminded team members that he had
10:11pm sent out an email and posted to the discussion board.
Jenna apologized to Andrew for not returning his email right away. She had
been busing with her other two classes, but she said that his research was
really good and that they could use it in their final paper. She told Pete and
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7/30
7/30
7/30
7/31
8:53am
Andrew that she was rewriting the Communication Log tonight and that she
would send them a draft when she completed it.
10:57am
Pete told Andrew and Jenna via email that he would look at Andrew’s
research when he got out of work later that night.
4:02pm
Dr. Johnson posted to the discussion board some more literary resources
that the group should use in their final paper.
8:10pm
Jenna emailed Andrew and Pete a copy of the revised Communication Log.
She asked how to correctly adjust the format on the table.
10:32am
Andrew emailed Jenna and Pete to ask them if they saw the additional
resources that Dr. Johnson had posted on the discussion board. Along with
this email he attached a copy of all of the sources he had found on the
paper topic.
He also asked if Mrs. Brinkman needed to see our Team Report #2 before it
was turned in.
10:56am
Jenna emailed Mrs. Brinkman copies of Team Report #2 and the
Communication log to see if she had any suggestions for their final paper.
2:15pm
Mrs. Brinkman emailed Jenna back with her thoughts on Team Report #2.
She reminded team members that they only had her for two more weeks
and to use the time wisely. She suggested that the team make a “hot sheet”
of all the important facts we should put into the final paper.
3:36pm
Jenna forwarded Mrs. Brinkman’s email to Andrew and Pete.
2:04pm
Andrew replied to Jenna’s email stating that he would try to find more
sources and categorize his research better before sending them to Jenna
and Pete.
7/31
8/1
8/2
8/3
3:36pm
Dr. Johnson sent a mass email to the class telling them that he had finished
grading Team Report #2 and the Communication log. He said that people
did work hard to complete this team report and urged us to look at other
teams reports to be more successful on the final paper.
He also reminded us not to plagiarize.
8/3
Dr. Johnson posted to Team 7’s discussion forum. He reminded the team to
use the discussion forum to post questions, comments, etc. about the final
paper.
8/9
Mrs. Brinkman responded to Dr. Johnson’s discussion post. She said that
she had replied to Jenna’s past email with her concerns about the final
paper. She let the team know that she’d be out of town from Tuesday (13th)
to Friday (16th) with limited cell service but she’d try to respond to any
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questions.
8/13
3:28pm
Andrew sent Jenna and Pete some sources that he collected for the final
paper.
Andrew posted to Dr. Johnson’s discussion post. He thanked Mrs. Brinkman
for her comments. He said that he hadn’t heard from the team for a while
and wanted to know what progress they’ve made. He told the team about
the progress he had made with his own resources and asked if Jenna or
Pete had looked through any of Dr. Johnson’s sources he had provided on a
past discussion post. He also asked to see if either team member had done
any research on Mrs. Brinkman’s request about making a “hot sheet” of
resources for parents.
8/13
Andrew posted again to let team members know that he had emailed the
sources to them.
8/14
9:52am
8/14
11:06am
Jenna emailed Andrew and Pete asking if there’s anything that she could do
to help with the final paper.
Dr. Johnson emailed the class a reminder about the due date of the final
paper. He said that the final paper should be emailed to the team’s Bright
Spot by 8am and that he should be ‘cced’ in that email. Each team member
should review the final paper and the communication log.
Jenna responded to Andrew’s discussion post stating that she was finishing
up the final Communication log and had looked through Dr. Johnson’s
sources earlier. She asked him if he had added Dr. Johnson’s sources into
his list, but then realized that he said he hadn’t and apologized for not
reading his post thoroughly.
8/14
Pete sent Jenna and Pete a rough draft of the final paper.
8/14
9:05pm
9:38pm
Andrew responded to his email by giving him some pointers about various
topics within the paper (APA format, the “hot sheet”, etc.).
Jenna emailed Andrew and Pete a copy of the Communication log.
8/14
Pete sent Jenna and Andrew the final draft of the paper to evaluate. Both
thought the paper looked fine and Pete said that he would do some
11:59pm finishing touches on the paper in the morning and then email it to Mrs.
Brinkman
12:45pm
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Bullying Prevention Tips:
For special needs children, van der Zande (2012) recommends families create a safety plan
that involves these points:
Integrate the teaching of personal safety skills along with other skills in your dayto-day life.
Make a Safety Plan for how to get help everywhere you go and review that plan
until you are sure that everyone understands
Teach children to speak up for themselves if they can and teach everyone who
comes in contact with vulnerable children how to be their advocates.
Be realistic if your child is likely to wander off and does not have the ability to
follow a safety plan or communicate with others.
Protect your family’s emotional safety from the thoughtless unkind things that
others sometimes say and do.
Take responsibility for the ways in which your child might cross the boundaries
of others.
Make time for the children in your family who do not have special needs to learn
age-appropriate personal safety skills.
Take care of yourself. (van der Zande, 2012).
Prevention of Cyber-bullying:
Kraft & Wang suggest that “removing the offender’s access to social networking sites and
the parents taking away the offender’s computer and cell phone would be the most effective
preventative strategies.” (Kraft & Wang, 2009).
The Safety Network (2011) outlines prevention strategies for four types of cyber-bullying.
The paraphrased highlights are as follows:
Mobile phones: Providers often have call centers or procedures in place to deal with
bullying. A child’s number can be changed if necessary. In addition, certain phones allow the
blocking of individual numbers (Safety Network, 2011).
Social Networking: Facebook has reporting procedures and a safety center for official
reports of bullying, but they also have ‘social reporting’ that allows regular users to report
offensive content (Safety Network, 2011).
Video/Picture sites: YouTube has similar mechanisms for reporting as Facebook (Safety
Network, 2011).
Instant Messaging/Chatrooms: Formal reporting is available, but victims need to remember
to save their chats in order to provide potential evidence of bullying (Safety Network, 2011).
14
Resources
For Parents:
Kidswatch
http://www.kidswatch.com/
Google Safety Center
http://www.google.com/goodtoknow/familysafety/tools/
Microsoft Family Safety
http://www.microsoft.com/security/family-safety/childsafety-steps.aspx
Ability Path
http://www.abilitypath.org/
For Students:
Beatbullying
http://www.beatbullying.org/
Childnet
http://www.childnet.com/
National Deaf Children’s Society
http://www.ndcs.org.uk/
References:
Kraft, E. M., and Wang, J. (2009). Effectiveness of cyber bullying prevention strategies: a study
on students’ perspectives. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 3(2), 513-535.
Safety Network. (2011). Helping you understand what cyberbullying is and how it can be
prevented. [online] Available at:
http://www.safenetwork.org.uk/help_and_advice/Pages/cyberbullying.aspx [Accessed: 11 Aug
2013]
van der Zande, I. (2012). Kidpower safety plans for children with disabilities. Retrieved from
http://www.kidpower.org/library/article/safety-plans-disabilities/