Why do some people think that Autism is a “boy thing”
Autism was first used to describe a pattern of behaviour that had only been seen in boys. It was thought that only boys could have autism. Early research into autism focused a lot on males. Over time, we now know that girls and women can be autistic too and that they can present differently to males. Difficulties with social communication and social interaction, and flexibility of thoughts/behaviours are still there, but may look different for females.
Compared to boys with autism, girls may:
- Have better social and communication skills.
- Be more socially motivated.
- Be better at camouflaging or masking autistic differences.
- Be more involved in pretend play and possibly have a more active imagination.
- Appear to have a group of friends, although often feeling they are on the edge/ not fully part of the group OR have intense friendships, possibly with a different quality to their neurotypical peers.
- Be better able to initiate friendships, but struggle to keep friends.
- Show more difficulties with socialising at secondary school when socialising becomes more complex.
- Appear to have fewer difficulties in school (e.g. behaviour that challenges) resulting in less concerns reported. Girls may not show that they are struggling.
- Have intense interests that appear similar to their peers.
- Be less repetitive and rigid in their thinking.
Girls are also more likely to have been diagnosed with certain mental health conditions, such as anxiety, depression or an eating disorder. A lot of autistic women say that the mental health diagnoses they were given never seemed to fully explain their difficulties.
Evidence suggests that on average females are diagnosed later than males. Females that have undiagnosed autism can then develop stress because their needs related to being autistic are not known and supported.