Scary coming and going

[rolanni]

OK! Scary medicine time! Researchers suggest (in an as-yet-unpublished paper) that there are fewer autism-diagnosed girls because the manifestations of "oversensitivity," "shyness," and "obsessional interests centered around people and relationships" are seen as typically girly, and not as worrisome to parents as those same symptoms are in boys.

Um, wow.

Are we going to see an uptick in girls diagnosed with autism, now? I mean, c'mon -- "oversensitivity"? And speaking as someone who is herself quite shy (stop laughing, you over there in the corner) how shy do you have to be to be labeled "autistic?"

The story's here

Comments

[windrose.livejournal.com]

I've often wondered about that, myself, and also about myself. I definitely had oversensitive and shy down as a kid, plus I used hold onto one of the bedposts of my bed and rock back and forth for hours when I was upset. I mentioned it to my doctor years later and was told that could be an indication of some form of mild autism, though we never followed up with any tests.

[jelazakazone.livejournal.com]

I am no expert, but there are a range of behaviors that have to be to certain extremes or duration apparently in order to be diagnosed with autism. So, if you have one or two of the behaviors, it might not be enough to make the diagnosis of autism (from what I understand). You just get labelled "quirky" instead:)

[(Anonymous)]

At least 2 boys in my family (one in the boomer generation, one now in his 20s) delayed talking until they could speak in sentences. Back the early 60s, my parents worried a little, then were proud of my brother's advanced speech patterns. My cousin and his wife worried a lot - and perhaps without the family precedent would probably have looked for a diagnosis instead of waiting a little longer...
B. O'Brien

[windrose.livejournal.com]

Is that a symptom? Because, according to my parents, I did the same thing. Didn't speak a word until I was almost three, and then started speaking in complete sentences. I also taught myself to read.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Didn't speak a word until I was almost three, and then started speaking in complete sentences.

Huh. I did that, too. It was widely known in the neighborhood that I "couldn't talk," and I subsequently scared five years off our next door neighbor one day by asking her, very grown-up and composed, "What does your husband do?"