Girls with Autism Struggle More With Daily Routine Tasks

The Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders published research indicating that girls with autism struggle more with daily routine tasks. The study included an age and IQ-matched sample of 228 school-aged youth diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to assess sex differences on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule and Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised, parent-reported autistic traits, and adaptive skills. The results indicated that:

females and males were rated similarly on gold-standard diagnostic measures overall.
females with higher IQs were less likely to meet criteria on the ADI-R.
females were also found to be significantly more impaired on parent-reported autistic traits and adaptive skills such as getting up and dressed and making small talk.

The lead researcher, Allison Ratto, Ph.D., states “This could mean that girls who meet the same clinical criteria as boys actually are more severely affected by ongoing social and adaptive skill deficits that we don’t capture in current clinical measures, and that autistic girls, in general, may be camouflaging these types of autism deficits during direct assessments.”

References:

Children’s National Health System. (2018, January 4). Girls’ social camouflage skills may delay or prevent autism diagnosis: Study adds evidence to growing belief that current clinical tools fail to capture unique autism presentations in females. ScienceDaily. Retrieved January 8, 2018 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180104160813.htm

Ratto, A. B., Kenworthy, L., Yerys, B. E., Bascom, J., Wieckowski, A. T., White, S. W., … & Scarpa, A. (2017). What About the Girls? Sex-Based Differences in Autistic Traits and Adaptive Skills. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 1-14.

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