By Dr Felicity Sedgewick and Hannah McLinden, University of Bristol
It has always been the case that the number of boys being diagnosed with autism far outnumbers the number of girls. While it used to be thought it was the “extreme male brain”, it’s now thought that diagnosis has historically just been missed in girls. For one, many autistic females develop “masking” behaviours to try to fit in, but a bigger problem is that autism checklists are designed to capture behaviours most displayed by males. It’s not uncommon for women, like myself, to be diagnosed much later in life, often as a result of their own children’s diagnosis. (more…)