"Because our diagnostic systems and stereotypes of ASD are based on males, we just don’t know how many girls with very high autistic traits are out there, unrecognized. We need to know, and we need to know if they are suffering in silence or managing to compensate." Francesca Happé, King’s College London
All the characteristics need not be present in the child but a significant number of checks warrant an assessment. Visit a speech-language pathologist today. Only trained specialists can make the autism diagnosis.
Early Years
• Separation anxiety from parent or caregiver
• Seeks and/or prefers the company of adults throughout the day
• Intense emotions are often observed in crying
• Sense of justice, adherence to rules, telling on others (or herself), described as bossy
• Can make friends but may have difficulty maintaining more than one friendship. It is the quality of the social interactions, as compared to her peers, that is the key indicator
• May be clingy to one peer
• Often has an advanced reading ability
• Correcting the teaching or others
• May be observed by herself and/or wandering around alone
• Teachers may view her as the odd one out, “odd” or “different”
• Passive and/or resistant to contributing to class group work/discussion and/or lack of
interest in classroom activities
• May be viewed as the “teacher’s pet”
The key social diagnostic characteristics include:
A. PLAY: may not be motivated to play with female peers. May play with boys or alone.
B. IMITATION: using copying and mimicking to imitate and attempt to fit into the social world. This helps them cope with their social confusion.
C. INTEREST: a lack of interest in what their female peers are interested in or their typical play.
A tendency to role-play adult roles. A tendency to spend the majority of the time “setting up” the scene rather than playing with it. Their interests are often similar to their peers, but it is the “intensity” of the interest that is the difference. There are differences in the areas of play, friendship, and social situation abilities and interests.
These may change in intensity depending on environmental/ social/health context. They will not all be present in one individual, but a significant number of ticks would suggest a referral for assessment might be helpful.
"Girls are diagnosed later than boys."
Friendships:
Lacks best friend/has just one or two intense friendships/fixates on one person/controlling or domineering/on the edge of things socially/imaginary friend/teased or bullied by peers /shy/timid/passive/flitting from group to group
May struggle with group work.
May obsess about the possibility of a relationship particularly a love interest or a feasible new friendship.
Strengths: May be very loyal
Maturity:
Different to peers; sometimes immature – may have a special object for comfort e.g. teddy bear – may play with younger children - or older children
Strengths: Sometimes very mature
Intense interests
That is very specific and restricted [may be similar to most girls e.g. books/animals/dolls/celebrities/fashion but more passionate, intense and repetitive, and less imaginative]- likes to talk about one particular topic but may be very factual
May have rich fantasy life – may be misinterpreted as psychosis
Strengths: Specialist in-depth knowledge which gives huge pleasure
School work
Difficulty with starting work in lessons or with stopping work that is unfinished –lack of interest in lessons - issues with homework.
Difficulty with change and or transitions
Forgetful – disorganized
Wanting things to be certain
High standards/perfectionist/may spend a long time on work -horror of failure = mental burnout
Strengths: Maybe a model student
May produce work of the very high caliber
Misunderstanding social norms
Failure to recognize status/authority – rude to teachers;
Correcting adults and their peers; may not know how to be a ‘child’, rejecting play with other girls preferring boys
Strengths: Different take on what really matters – sometimes refreshing!
Communication
May have been referred for Speech and Language therapy;
Struggling with following verbal instructions; poor at chit-chat; difficulty with open questions;
Overuse of stock phrases; taking things literally; selective mutism; may be exhausted by social interaction; not initiating conversations; reluctant to answer questions in class
Difficulties with appropriate facial expressions and responses - may laugh inappropriately –infrequent use of gesture
Strengths: May be able to learn ‘scripts’ successfully
Some girls with autism have exceptionally good expressive language.
Different behavior from home to school
e.g. anxious at home but ‘fine’ at school
Find it very difficult to get up in the morning and ‘face the world’; trying hard to fit in at school but this comes at a cost: exhausted and emotional when safely at home
High levels of anxiety
May be misdiagnosed with mental illness – but may also develop mental health problems [ e.g. depression, self-harm, OCD, demand avoidance];
Emotionally upset for apparently trivial reasons; catastrophizing; ‘meltdowns’[shouting, aggressive] or ‘shutdowns’ [ silent, head on the desk, avoiding interaction, unable to communicate, a blank stare, looking into space, withdrawn]
Obsessive – organizing things endlessly, doing the same thing repeatedly e.g. line up toys [rather than play imaginatively with them]
Strengths: Ability to persist with something
Lack of sense of personal identity
e.g. not sure how to describe themselves beyond physical appearance
Over apologetic – appeasing others
Strengths: Freedom from social constraints
Gender may lack certainty about gender;
May reject ‘feminine’ clothing preferring comfortable practical clothes;
No interest in hair or make-up; Tomboy type; desire to present as male
Strengths: Freedom from social constraints
Sensory processing differences [noise/touch/light…]
e.g. dislike having hair brushed or washed, dislike hand dryers, sensitive to clothes, resistant to hugs and kisses, need warning that someone is going to touch
Flicks fingernails, pick skin, rubs hands, paces, clears throat
Eating issues: limited diet; eating disorder
Poor personal hygiene
Strengths: May find great pleasure in certain sensory experiences
Intense
It May come across as opinionated; strong need to be right,
Strengths: Strong sense of justice
Copying others
Studying people-watching in the playground or on films/videos [repeatedly] and acting out what she has seen; practicing what she is going to say, play may be about practicing rather than having fun;
Lacking in spontaneity
Observe and copy behavior – may use repeated script when meeting people - mask the autism
Analytical rather than intuitive
Strengths: Observant
Sounderic provides online speech therapy sessions for Autism. We would love to help you. Get in touch with us on WhatsApp at +919644466635 or schedule a consultation with us at https://www.sounderic.com/service-page/autism-social-communication-disorder?referral=service_list_widget
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Resources:
This checklist has been developed using information from several sources including NAS ‘Women and Girls’ training module 2018 - input from T Attwood, J Gould, S Hendrickx https://www.autismonlinetraining.com/course/view.php?id=44
The Education of Girls with an Autism Spectrum Condition? The hidden curriculum by J AshtonSmith https://www.slideshare.net/NationalAutisticSociety/stream-2-session-2-jacqui-ashton-smith
Girls and women who have Asperger’s syndrome ‘Safety Skills for Asperger Women’ by Liane Holliday Willey. Foreword by T Attwood http://www.tonyattwood.com.au/about-aspergers/girls-and-women-who-have-aspergers
NASEN - Girls and Autism: Flying under the radar by Barry Carpenter and Jo Egerton http://www.nasen.org.uk/resources/resources.girls-and-autism-flying-under-the-radar.html
Early Years information is taken from Tania Ann Marshall author of Aspien Girl books. https://taniaannmarshall.wordpress.com/2013/06/22/first-signs-of-asperger-syndrome-in-younggirls-pre-school/