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. 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 Chresta, 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.”
C. Statement of Challenge / Requested Information
Chresta 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, Chresta
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.”
D. Summary of Scientific Research Related to Challenge
IMPACT: There was only a single article that dealt with both cyber-bullying and children
with disabilities. In the Kowalski 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, 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, 2011)
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Cyberbullying in general seems to be associated with lower self-esteem for both the victim
and the perpetrator (Pactchin 2010). Mishna and colleagues 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 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.”
PREVALENCE: We were able to find other studies that discussed bullying, in general (not
necessarily cyber-bullying), on special needs children. In the Twyman study, 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 2010) The authors compared these groups
to a control group and found “significant victimization.” Their conclusion was that “children
with special health care needs may be at higher risk for bullying, victimization, and ostracism.”
(Twyman 2010)
Another Mishna study 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 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)
PREVENTION: A number of preventative strategies are being advocated. For special needs
children, van der Zande 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.
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Take care of yourself.(van der Zande 2012)
Kraft and colleagues 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 2009)
E. Possible Solutions for Organization’s Challenge Based on Scientific Research
Findings
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 2009)
F. Revision of Solutions Based on Feedback from Professional
We haven’t yet presented our findings to our professional. We will update this section when
we have more information.
G. References
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References
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.
(2012). Bullying and harassment of students with disabilities. Retrieved from
http://www.pacer.org/bullying/resources/students-with-disabilities/
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). Efffectiveness 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/
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.
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). Retreived July 17, 2013, from
http://cohandsandvoices.org/about/mission.html.
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
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/
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van der Zande, I. (2012). Kidpower safety plans for children with disabilities. Retrieved from
http://www.kidpower.org/library/article/safety-plans-disabilities/
H. Communication Log
Communication Log
Team 7: Jenna Rossetti, Andrew Bartholomew, and Peter Magnuson
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
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our team bright spot.
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
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research process.
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
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8:53am
7/30
7/30
7/30
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
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.