Autism: The Female Profile

Strengths: Art Drama Horses Animals Unicorn Writing Loyal

By Dr. Jenni Silva, Clinical Psychologist Let's Talk Autism in Females!! The Female Profile. Over the past 10 years or so, professionals have identified general characteristic of females with ASD. This has led to an understanding of the Female Profile and what to look for when diagnosis or assessing females. But before we look at some of the characteristics, let’s look at the gender ratio in ASD.Gender ratio in ASD. Approximately one per cent of the school age population of children is reported to have an ASD (Kopp & Gillberg, 2011) with a higher prevalence rate reported in males than females (Baron-Cohen, Knickmeyer, & Belmonte, 2005; Chakrabarti & Fombonne, 2001a; Fombonne & 2005). The higher prevalence rates in males may be due to females with ASD more likely to be misdiagnosed or recognised after the age of 15 or may simply reflect the difficulty in diagnosing females with ASD (Baron-Cohen et al., 2005). Higher functioning autism disorders in females may be harder to diagnose if females are more motivated to socially conform (Holliday-Willey, 1999). McLennan, Lord and Schooler (1993) found that boys with an ASD displayed greater social impairments than girls, although girls had more severe social deficits as the course of the disorder reached adolescence. I certainly have observed this through my clinical observations of when working with girls on the autism spectrum.
The general consensus is that females with ASD exhibit:
  • Tendency to socially mask or camouflage. Masking also known as camouflaging is a technique used by many individuals with autism to conceal their social difficulties. May mimic others.
  • Increased social imitation skills,
  • A strong desire for perfectionism
  • Are more socially motivated with a desire to interact directly with others,
  • When asking about developmental history a tendency to go unnoticed e.g., A tendency to be shy or passive,
  • Better imagination compared to boys diagnosed with ASD
  • Better linguistic abilities developmentally, and
  • Play or Interests that focus on animals such as horses.
  • Interest may be similar to other women but the intensity and time spent on activity may be significantly different.
  • Females with autism may be interest in supernatural, psychology, learning about autism, soap operas, people and relationships, animals and compiling facts. However, they may also be interested in trains and technology and dinosaurs which are more typically associated with the male profile. It is therefore important to understand how much time they spend on such activities.
  • Spending time with others: There is a misconception that people with autism do not enjoy spending time with others , however many people with autism particularly females enjoy this but find it exhausting. This exhaustion may be due to the mental energy used interpreting other people’s communicating and working out their responses.
  • Social butterflies. Many female with autism appear to have friends but often they are out the periphery of many different friendship groups… acting as a social butterfly.
  • May prefer the company of boys as the rules are easier, they are often less emotive and more truthful
  • Restricted and repetitive behaviours can appear subtler in females with autism
  • Interests: Fantasy and Imagination. Females with autism can have a tendency to create rich and elaborate fantasy words. Imaginary friends, can have difficulty separating fantasy from reality at times.
For more reading on this topic and to help understand further the following books are recommended.
  • Aspergirls, Empowering Females with Asperger Syndrome by Rudy Simone,
  • Pretending to Be Normal: Living with Asperger's Syndrome by  Liane Holliday Willey 
This should be a good start to help you further learn about autism in girls. I hope you have found this post helpful. That's it from me!Dr. Jenni SilvaClinical PsychologistBrilliant Minds Psychology
References: 1. National Autism Society: Women and girls module2. Holliday-Willey, 19993. Baron-Cohen, Knickmeyer, & Belmonte, 20054. Chakrabarti & Fombonne, 2001a; Fombonne & 2005)5. Kopp & Gillberg, 20116. McLennan, Lord and Schooler (1993) Photos Photo by Patricia Prudente on Unsplash

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