3:13am July 8, 2013

➸ : It seems to be commonly believed that the reason why so many autistic...

soilrockslove:

youneedacat:

mulder-are-you-suggesting:

It seems to be commonly believed that the reason why so many autistic girls and women go undiagnosed is because we’re supposed to be good at “masking" our symptoms. And like… I think that’s probably true in many cases, but I don’t think it tells the whole story. See, multiple people have been…

This reminds me of a girl in Kanner’s original paper. She was the sister of an autistic boy. Her development was described in detail. But he didn’t call her autistic, he called her schizophrenic, and entertained no possibility that she was autistic.

Yeah, a lot of circular reasoning goes on…  Girls don’t get diagnosed because it’s a “boys thing"  and it’s a “boys thing" because more boys are diagnosed with it.  Also, more “feminine" interests like sewing, knitting, cooking, ponies, unicorns, etc.  are less likely to be seen as “special interests" even if they fit the criteria. :/

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