"But you don't look autistic": why have we been misunderstanding Autism in Girls?

Dr Alexandra Sturrock will talk about findings from three related projects that explore social communication for autistic girls in mainstream settings. This includes data from direct assessment, clinical and parent/teacher observation and child self-report. In particular, we try to unpick how children without intellectual impairment and with basic language (vocabulary and grammar) in the normal range, continue to experience real difficulties when communicating with non-autistic peers.

There is growing recognition that autism is not just something experienced by boys. Research suggests that autism may present differently in girls, making it harder to recognise and often leading to misdiagnosis or girls being missed completely. The concept of masking, whereby girls may try to ‘hide’ their autism, can help us to understand why girls sometimes go under the radar. This talk will consider my own doctoral research, including a review of the literature into autistic girls experience of mainstream education and the views of three autistic teenage girls at a mainstream high school.

As an Autistic woman, the route to diagnosis is long and confusing. We often feel as though we don’t quite fit in with our peers but can’t quite put our fingers on why; but, because we often perform well academically, our difficulties are often overlooked. I started to suspect I was on the autistic spectrum around my mid-twenties and began the route to diagnosis. In this discussion I will use my own lived experience to explore what it means to be an autistic woman in a neurotypical world.