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Conference Discussion [Autism2006]
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Ian Ensum
Reg'd: 5th Oct 06
Posts: 1

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Women and girls with ASD. A much misunderstood group. (6th Oct 06 11:05:32 GMT)

Morning everyone. I'm a clinical psychologist working with adults with Asperger's Syndrome, who is starting to really think there is a hidden, largely invisible population of females with ASDs who end up misdiagnosed & misunderstood by services & society in general. For me, DSM/ICD describe a male stereotype which bears little relation to the people I see every day in my clinics - especially the women. does anyone else feel this way, or am I finally losing it?
  Subject     Poster     Posts     Last Post  
Females with ASD?
  Ladybug Ladybug   0   
Girls with asd
  Fairy's Mum   3  09-Oct-06 12:01:07 GMT 
Ian, Thank you. You are right on the button
  Sandy Kelleher   2  18-Oct-06 15:48:01 GMT 
Girls and ASD
  Janet Dudley   0   
Women with AS
  Jane Neil-MacLachlan   0   
...
  Sophist Gestalt   4  11-Oct-06 23:17:47 GMT 
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Most of the females I know online, including myself, were either dxed late or are still not dxed and therefore not part of any statistics. Many didn't realize their autisticness until THEY had children who were dxed.

Plus I've noticed that females are more prone, in childhood, to be the eccentric wallflowers. Males seem to show more behavior problems, or be the object of more intense physical bullying, and get dxed (whether accurately initially or not is another story).

Plus, I think females might tend to have different interest profiles and so if they're not spouting off train tables or reciting what they've learned about dinosaurs, somehow they're interests are more "normal".

For me at least during my childhood, I wasn't "into" information gathering. I was a collection-aholic. And this didn't stand out as anything more than slightly odd.

Finally, sometimes I think that female Aspies may many times be better at socializing than the males (maybe not great, but perhaps enough to get by and not arouse a great deal of suspicion). Not to say ALL female Aspies. But maybe on average though...
How Girls Bully (Odd Girls Out by Rachel Simmons)
  Ladybug Ladybug   2  14-Oct-06 19:31:26 GMT 
How Women Bully
  Blanche McKenna   1  14-Oct-06 21:28:59 GMT 
How Women Bullly
  Ladybug Ladybug   0   
I agree
  Margaret Sharp   0   
...
  Sophist Gestalt   1  14-Oct-06 23:40:09 GMT 
Ignoring could also be not getting it...and of course there's a large group of AS-women that simply are ignored today
  Lotta Abrahamsson   0   
Possible connection with anorexia in young women with undiagnosed autism?
  Margaret Schofield   0   
...
  Sophist Gestalt   0   
uadiagnosed asds in women(re autism2006 conferrence)
  Jane Whelan   0   

 

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