Girls Can Hide Being Autistic

The scientists from University College London have found that thousands of girls in the UK may have non-diagnosed autism. This is due to the fact that girls are much better than boys at hiding the symptoms of this disorder.

Official statistics suggest that autism develops 9 times more often in boys than in girls. For a long time, experts have believed that this inequality is caused by genetic differences between the sexes. But now British scientists have found that girls simply conceal the symptoms of autism much better than boys.

One of the main symptoms of the disorder is the difficulty to recognize the emotions of others. Autistic people usually cannot understand the kind of mood of the people, who surround them: whether they have a sense of sadness, joy or fear. Autistic girls demonstrate this failure not so bright as boys, which makes it more difficult to give the correct diagnosis to girls. Late diagnosis of autism is dangerous because there is an increased risk of developing an eating disorder and depression in this case.

These data were obtained by the researchers after they had analyzed the records of 3,666 children between the ages of 13 and 14, who passed special tests for detection of autism. It was found that girls with autism better coped with concealing some of the symptoms, including the ability to differentiate the emotions of others. The authors of the study also believe that these girls learn to read emotions on the faces, and thus get rid of the main feature of autism, although the disorder does not disappear, of course.

At school, these girls will experience an increased level of stress because they do not communicate with classmates, and in addition, they need a special way of presenting information.