While there’s no way for me to tell you absolutely for sure whether your child is autistic (that’s for a professional to do!), I would like to cover some experiences for our little girls today.
The prevalence of autistic boys to girls is about 4 to 1. While that is what current numbers state, there’s a growing hypothesis that autism in girls is less identified. Why might that be? Here are a few reasons that contribute to this dilemma:
1. The diagnostic criteria were created off of the male presentation of autism. This means that girls will not exhibit the same behaviours as boys that could lead to an identification.
2. In addition to not being identified, girl’s symptoms may be misdiagnosed with another condition, like anxiety or ADHD. This does not necessarily mean that these are not co-occurring, but they may not be the whole picture.
3. The girls in our society are raised with priorities around social tendencies. That is, girls are naturally raised to be more social than boys and have social priorities. This makes it more difficult to recognise autism.
4. The social priorities are likely to contribute to masking. Masking is when an autistic person performs certain behaviours and suppresses others in order to be more similar to the people around them.
All of the above are likely to be factors in why girls are not identified, but what can we look for in our girls that may be an indication to get them assessed and gain support?
Here are some signs and symptoms that the organisation Yellow Ladybugs have identified that could be helpful in a potential identification. If she:
- Is situationally mute, quiet or shy
- Carries a comfort item
- Needs reassurance consistently
- Has difficulty making friends
- Is overly sensitive, as in crying frequently or has trouble with separation from parents
- Could be bossy or directive
- Only playing her game, her way
- “Polices” others, either tattling or telling others what to do
- Plays the same way or place or storyline or character
- Needs clear rules and won’t try games that don’t have clear rules
- Organises toys rather than playing with them
- Has food sensitivities
- Copies others actions, facial expressions or words
Though this is not an extensive list, it will help parents, educators and other caregivers to keep these attributes in mind to help others understand that the child may need support in different areas. Do you have a little girl that displays some of these attributes? Have you considered autism?
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