Not knowing what is right or wrong can make them confused on how they feel and this is affecting them emotionally.
Children with special needs are being bullied emotionally in school and out of school by name calling and the way people look at them, which makes them feel like they do not fit in with others. That is the first stage to bullying which is mentally bullying others. "Students with disabilities can potentially experience the same negative effects on mental health as students without disabilities when they are bullied. Students with intellectual disabilities who were bullied online reported high levels of emotional and interpersonal problems" (Swearer). Some children with disabilities have very low self-esteem at a young age and, when people bully them it affects their self-esteem more until they end up not wanting to go out or go to school. Mental bullying can come from the internet, in person, or by looking at them in a weird or mean way that can make them feel down about themselves. Mental bullying hurts the most but there are other things that can happen such as physical bullying, which is even worse than emotional bullying.
Physical bullying will begin in a different form or the second stage and it will progress to physical violence such as hitting, pushing, and tripping. "Bullying is aggressive behavior that is intentional and that involves an imbalance of power or strength" (Bullying Among Children). Bullying is very common for children with special needs because they often cannot protect themselves and they are a little slower than normal people, which makes them an easy target for bullies. Physical bullying can make the person feel uncomfortable and that they are in an unsafe environment and that can make the person not want to go to school or even be scared to see people. The feeling of being weak towards people who are normal is a big disadvantage because they can not do anything about it and most of the time they are not going to know who is doing it.
