GIrls on the autism spectrum: insights and directions for research

Girls with ASD have received little attention, research-wise. What have you learned about girls with ASD from your personal experience? What do you think researchers should focus on when it comes to girls on the autism spectrum?

With regard to girls on the spectrum, I would like to see a focus on the following: The effects of depression on teenage girls. Given that depression rates for adolescents are on the rise, specific focus on age of onset, triggers, and the efficacy of current treatment methodology would be of great benefit.

Welcome to IAN, Jeanne, and thanks for your comment.

I think you are absolutely right. There is such a need for research on co-occurring depression or anxiety and ASD. It is important that girls are not neglected as this research goes forward, but considered as an important group in their own right.

I currently have a daughter orig severe autism, now presenting as asperger's and I received no help regarding gender issues from anyone so its amazing that there is finally a book and an interest on research for girls. We did do many therapies when she was younger. I could never dream of what would come to pass, and it took until age 18-19 for me to realize things may be ok for her for the most part,so all those other years were frightening.
She is enrolled in community college for 3.5 classes per semester and is very independently able in many areas,still trying to see if she could drive,but already in bus independent. Is passing courses on her own, holds down a pt job,has an internship, and is active in 2 clubs and attends an adult transition prg. for life skills all at the smae time and is working hard at developing a real social life.She has an easier time dating mildly disabled ASP boys than developing strong relationships with girls on the spectrum.The boys always ask to spend time with her regularly, and the only difficult part is they have a hard time with a break up which usually comes from her if they have issues that bother her too much. She keeps trying but girls on the spectrum that she has met are often not enough similar to her to be stable.There are so few of them and the ranges or abilities and the range of anxiety issues are so diverse they rarely match up and the relationship doesn't last because of the other girl not being reciprocating or their interest waning for varied reasons,and they usually dont have the video game interest the boys have to draw them together or any other matching interest other than movies,So, I am encouraging her to develop girls for friends with different disabilities or without any if she can find that patient a girl. She is very busy and does not needs meds to function,nor has she ever.Abstract thought is still hard and is impacting life skill and social development but with supports she will be able to have a real but non-competitive job.

Hope this helps others.

Welcome to IAN, TheatreGirlMom, and thank you for sharing your daughter's story with us.

Although you have been through some harrowing times, your daughter has made such amazing progress and I'm sure your account will encourage many of our readers. It is interesting to hear what the social dynamics are for your daughter, both with typical and other ASD friends, and how that varies by gender.

I hope there is a great deal more research to help guide parents trying to help their girls on the spectrum in the near future. I would be very interested to know, based on your comments here, what type of person tends to be the best potential friend for a girl on the spectrum at a specific age.

we have a 12 year old girl who just came back from a disappointing evaluation where all we heard was boys do this, we tell the families of boys this, boys are helped by doing this, and so on. they finished up by letting us know that we had raised her wrong so far so now they could set us right and she would be right as rain since she didn't have any form of autism. after reading about this book I can only say someone help her and all the other girls who are being ignored because they don't act like boys. We aren't giving up since it is as plain as can be that there is something going on besides we don't know how to raise a girl. I hope someone will keep on the research on the differences between girls and boys and get the information to the people doing the testing.

Welcome to IAN, nannyof5.

I'm so sorry to hear that you had such a frustrating experience trying to get your daughter evaluated. I am hearing from so many parents of girls, and also from adult women who have an ASD, that far too little is known about how they differ from males on the spectrum or how to better help them. You are so right that more research is needed, and that its results have got to be disseminated to those out in the trenches evaluating and helping girls with ASD.

One role I hope IAN can play is providing researchers with a way to find girls with ASD so that their families can be invited to participate in girl-focused research. (That is one function IAN serves: letting families know about research studies going on that match their family. So...if a researcher wanted to do a study on girls with ASD, IAN could let families of girls know about it to help get that study done.)