Research
uptick in social difficulties his team
It’s a girl thing too
Boys outnumber girls with autism
by around four to one – or so says
conventional wisdom. But there’s
evidence that girls are better at
masking social challenges and
their autistic traits can appear
later. Report by Darren Devine
10 Au t i s m | e y e I s s u e 3 1 2 0 1 8
When previously untroubled
young girls start to show symptoms
of autism later in life, is it a genuine
late onset of the condition or simply
subtle, pre-existing difficulties
becoming more obvious?
This is the question researchers
could soon be grappling with after
findings that suggest girls show an
increase in autistic social traits later
than boys.
Researchers at the University
College of London (UCL) found the
www.autismeye.com
traits for autism in girls become
more pronounced between 10 and
16 years old.
Girls better at masking
And an earlier US study of
elementary school-age children
with autism published in November
2016 supported the idea that girls
were better at masking or
camouflaging their autism.
The research, led by Michelle
Dean of California State University,
www.autismeye.com
Their child
gets diagnosed
and they start to
relate to a lot of the
experiences their child
has gone through”
found girls with autism were better
than boys at staying in close
proximity to peers and weaving in
and out of activities.
Girls with autism will continue to
be “left unidentified” if
professionals look for social
isolation on the playground when
identifying children with social
challenges, the study concluded.
Dr William Mandy, who led the
UCL research, says it’s very
important to investigate what the
found in adolescence is reflecting.
Do the social difficulties reveal
autistic traits, or are they
“impairments secondary to anxiety
or depression”? In an email, he
added: “Nevertheless, whatever its
cause, the fact that females
experience this increase in social
difficulties is important.
“One possible explanation is
that the social environment for
females escalates more quickly
and markedly during adolescence
than it does for males.”
Progress of autism traits
Mandy’s team mapped the
progress of autism traits in the
general population across
childhood. They used the Avon
Longitudinal Study of Parents
and Children (ALSPAC) to trace
autism traits.
The ALSPAC research was a
general population study in the
south west of England from birth,
involving 9,744 children.
Autism traits were assessed at
the ages of seven, 10, 13 and 16,
using the Social Communication
Disorders Checklist (SCDC), which
relies on information from parents.
At age seven boys scored
higher than girls for autism traits
and were more likely to be in the
“clinical range”.
But the difference diminished
over time as the symptoms in girls
got stronger. By the age of 16
there was no longer any difference.
Not so easy to recognise
Dr Sarah Lister Brook, clinical
director of the National Autistic
Society (NAS), says social
difficulties are often present much
earlier on in a girl’s development.
However, “the presentation is
more subtle, so they aren’t so easy
Difficult years:
long-standing
to recognise”.
She adds: “As the social
issues may
start to show
pressures and gender
expectations increase significantly
as social
pressures
as a girl gets older, the teenage
experience brings long-standing
and gender issues to the fore.”
expectations Listerbrook also says the study
increase when relied on “a core set of social
girls get older behaviours” reported on by parents.
She thinks it’s possible that these
“may not be the most relevant for
females during the early years”.
Au t i s m | e y e I s s u e 3 1 2 0 1 8 11
 Research Speaking through pictures

Further reading
Dr Heather Stone
Wodis’s book, A patented ‘high-tech’
Girls with Autism Communication Aid
Becoming Women, uniquely developed
investigates the
experiences of
for non-verbal
seven women as they communicators
transition from childhood to familiar with physical
adulthood. Education, sexuality, Picture Exchange and
career paths and social networks
are among the things that impact based on Drag and Drop with voice output.
their lives – but a supportive family
and a diagnosis in childhood help
them to deal with their challenges.
Jessica Kingsley Publishers,
£13.99/$19.95 paperback ● Familiar and easily recognisable
to physical Picture Exchange
In addition, “the gender users
expectations of the parents may
have had an influence on their
reporting”. she says. ● Choice of popular image sets:
In her book Girls with Autism
Becoming Women, Dr Heather
PCS, SymbolStix or Widgit
Stone Wodis investigates the
experiences of seven women as
they transition from childhood to
● Drag & Drop encourages
adulthood. Stone Wodis, who lives “intentional” communication
with obsessive compulsive
disorder (OCD) and is visually and more control
impaired, says growing numbers
of women are now being
diagnosed later in life. ● Simple and quick to configure
and personalise
Reflect on their condition
And Stone Wodis, who as a result
of her visual impairment and OCD
describes herself as neurodivergent,
● Ability to add voice recording
says seeing one of their own and digital photos , e.g. family,
children diagnosed is often the
trigger that compels women to
friends, carers etc.
reflect on their own condition. Chicago, says this can see autistic Like mother,
She says: “Their child gets Something that teens marginalized as they begin like daughter:
diagnosed and they start to realise to struggle with everyday aspects author Dr
and relate to a lot of the experiences she used to do of life – such as flirting with the Heather Stone
their child has gone through. when she was seven opposite sex. Wodis believes
“And then it gives them pause to growing Available on Windows
be like, ‘Wait a second, I used to and was fine, now, at Comfortable to them numbers
10 Tablets or as
do this. I didn’t talk until I was nine. 14, when her friends “They see all their peers doing it of women
Software Only
I was obsessed with pink stuffed (flirting) effortlessly and so then are being
animals. Wait a second – this are going on dates, they start to retreat into what is diagnosed with
seems a little odd”
FREE
seems really familiar.’” comfortable to them, whether it be autism later
Stone Wodis is unconvinced by sitting in a rocking chair for hours in life after
the notion that autism appears or brushing their doll’s hair. recognising
later in girls; instead, she believes pathology or is this just kids’ stuff’? “And at 14 brushing a doll’s hair symptoms in 30 DAY TRIAL
their more subtle symptoms simply “And as they grow older and is no longer socially acceptable or their autistic AVAILABLE FROM OUR WEBSITE
go unnoticed. relationships and social norms appropriate. So something that she children that
She says: “It becomes more
apparent and obvious (in
become more complex, they have
increasing difficulty keeping up
used to do when she was seven,
eight and was totally fine, now, at
they themselves
showed in
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adolescence) because when with it.” 14, when her friends are going on childhood Tel: 044 (0)330 555 0220 Email: contact@speaks4me.com
you’re a kid people are like, ‘Is this Stone Wodis, who lives near dates, seems a little odd.”

12 Au t i s m | e y e I s s u e 3 1 2 0 1 8 www.autismeye.com