Girls with Autism/Asperger Syndrome?

[pokemon_master]

Hey, Today I was told that girls don't get Autism or Asperger Syndrome. This interests me as I read up today that Boys are twice as likely as girls to get it, but does this mean it is possible to get it?

Does anyone know of any girls that have Autism or AS? If so please tell me so I can get my facts right.

 

[Deedee]

Thats funny never thought about it before but all the children at our school with it are boys.

 

[granmaz]

I do remember an interview with a girl, well young lady, with Aspergers on TV some years ago. I had never heard of it before. Otherwise it does seem more common in males.

 

[wideeyes]

There was a little girl at a nursery I worked at who had Autism.

 

[lexie32]

my friends step daughter is autistic, but i do remember reading boys are more prone to it

hth alex

 

[mumloveseeyore]

the autistic unit my son attends is all boys but there are a few girls in the primary group. There is quite a famous american lady with autism Temple grandin Hope this helps matt Gill

 

[alisonbestford]

My niece has Aspergers.
Don't really know much about it as we're not close though

 

[CustardTart]

Two previous colleagues of mine both had daughters with Aspergers - as I recall the one was more severe than the other...

 

[Netty]

hi matt, as you know, i work in a school for ASD children.
yes girls have autism/aspergers. we have a few girls in our school.
found this for you!
It is not difficult to demonstrate the fact that there are more boys with autistic spectrum disorders than girls. Hans Asperger originally believed that no girls were affected by the syndrome he described in 1944, although clinical evidence later caused him to revise this statement. In Kanner's 1943 study of a small group of children with autistic syndrome there were four times as many boys as girls; and in their much larger study of Asperger syndrome in mainstream schools in Sweden in 1993, Ehlers and Gillberg found the same male to female ratio of 4:1. The ratio of male to female clients in NAS adult services is approximately 3:1.

In epidemiological research Wing (1981) found that among people with high-functioning autism or Asperger syndrome there were as many as fifteen times as many males as females. On the other hand, when she looked at individuals with learning difficulties as well as autism the ratio of boys to girls was closer to 2:1. This would suggest that, while females are less likely to develop autism, when they do they are more severely impaired.

 

[jsaem]

I know for a fact that girl's can have autism! My 21 year old neice is severly autistic. She is totally non-verbal and can have very violent outburst. It is true that boys are statistcally more likley to have autism but girls can be affected too.

 

[emily1982]

I'm not sure about autism but i know aspergers is rare in girls but it does happen.

 

[Netty]

I'm not sure about autism but i know aspergers is rare in girls but it does happen.

Aspergers can go undetected in both girls and boys as its harder to diagnose than autism

 

[Tartan Tigger]

My friend has 8 year old twins (boy and girl). Her son was diagnosed with Aspergers when he was 4. Her daughter has just been diagnosed as Autistic.

 

[Lizzybear]

Autism and Autistic spectrum disorders are definitely more common in boys than girls but I have heard of girls who suffer from these. I've wondered on and off if I have Aspergers to some degree but I try to push the idea out of my mind as I think you can go a bit mad with diagnosing this and that and end up worrying/feeling even more alienated unnecessarily.
ETA: I think Tinktatoo's (poster on here) daughter has Aspergers, I remember reading it in one of her trippies.

 

[TinkTatoo]

....ETA: I think Tinktatoo's (poster on here) daughter has Aspergers, I remember reading it in one of her trippies.

Thanks Lizzie - I just spotted this thread

I have a son with Autism and a daughter with Aspergers. They both go to a special school where there are 41 pupils with ASD and only 6 of them are girls 3 have Aspergers and 3 have Autism.

Aspergers is much harder to detect in girls as they tend to be more "social" by nature and their obsessions are less noticeable and often overlooked. We probably wouldn't have realised DD has Aspergers except that we were so clued in because of DS.

 

[Lizzy Lemon]

A neighbour of mine has a 13 year old daughter with Aspergers. We have become good friends and she helped point me in the right direction for getting my Ashley diagnosed with ASD. We support each other as we seem to have the knack of feeling low at different times, so when one of us is feeling strong we support the other. At other times I come on here to sound off.

 

[pokemon_master]

Thanks Netty for the excellent notes ~ I can't remember you saying about working with ASDs but I am glad you have so we can come to you for advice.

Thanks for clearing things up for me everyone. I had no idea that there were so many people who had Autism/Asperger Syndrome in their lives. It's nice to have so many "Cousins".

 

[Netty]

Thanks Netty for the excellent notes ~ I can't remember you saying about working with ASDs but I am glad you have so we can come to you for advice.

I love my job working with asd kids!!
I have had to struggle to get my son diagnosed for years, i knew there was something quite not right with him from the age of 4, he was eventually diagnosed with AS at the age of 16... this was after years of being fobbed off with things like, he's just shy, he'll grow out of it etc!
He is now 23 and is at the university of glamorgan doing computer studies!
he has mild As but is very very shy and likes to be on his own alot.
Matt, it will be me coming to you for advice!!

 

[pokemon_master]

I have had to struggle to get my son diagnosed for years, i knew there was something quite not right with him from the age of 4, he was eventually diagnosed with AS at the age of 16... this was after years of being fobbed off with things like, he's just shy, he'll grow out of it etc!

I'm the total opposite! I was diagonised at age 5 and I'm now 16. It's nice to have some many people there to help me as I was diagonised early, but I do have a slight fear that it's all just an illusion i.e. I have grown out of it but the rest is just psycological.

I'll offer as much help as possible if you guys ask. Just don't ask me what makes a person an Aspie.. I have no idea and I have it!