Girls and Women on the Autism Spectrum - Webinar
It will never cease to amaze me just how many resources are available for autistic people and their families.
I was taking one of
my walking breaks at work this afternoon, when I noticed
The Thinking Person's Guide to Autism Twitter account announcing that a webinar on Girls and Women on the Autism Spectrum was going to be happening that afternoon. I wasn't really able to listen to the webinar fully at work, but I did get the chance to review it when I returned home, and it was a really great overview of some of the standard differences between girls and boys on the spectrum and what we can do to better support autistic females.
Carol Greenburg was the presenter of the webinar. She's the East Coast Regional Director of the
Autism Women's Network. Since she is on the spectrum herself and is also raising a son with autism, she really sees the subject from many different angles. She gave a shout-out to Dr. Shana Nichols Ph.D, author of
Girls Growing Up on the Autism Spectrum, for all of the research she is doing on the subject, but Greenburg was quick to explain that there's still a lot more research that needs to be done.
Greenburg summarized some of the basic differences that people generally notice between boys and girls on the autism spectrum. Boys tend to be confined to more restrictive play, while girls are often better at pretend play; Social difficulties often turn up early with boys, why they often don't show up until adolescence in girls; and boys are often plagued with attentional difficulties, while girls have fewer attentional issues. She explained that adolescence is where girls typically start "chatting" about such subjects as fashion, gossip, and current pop stars, which is why autistic girls often begin having the most difficulty during this period of times. She also mentioned that diagnosis often happens much earlier for boys, since there are more behavioral difficulties in boys that tend to draw attention to the issues. Girls, on the other hand, tend to "pass" for much longer, which often results in girls not getting much-needed treatment until much longer. Greenburg went on to discuss suggestions on how to get girls diagnosed at an earlier age, a cross-cultural perspective of autism and gender, and the transition into adulthood and how that differs between autistic men and women. She also stressed the importance of learning self-advocacy at a very early age, as well as the importance of finding and sustaining a community.
You can listen to the webinar here.
There was a lot of really good information here, and while I'd seen a great deal of this in bits and pieces all across the Internet, it was nice to have the chunks neatly summarized where I could easily process them and also quickly share the information with others. I was previously familiar with the
Autism Women's Network from their podcast (which, according to the webinar, they plan to bring back in January), but I think I'd only seen the
Autism Now website in passing. Both are really amazing resources, and I highly encourage exploration of both their sites for personal research in autism and helpful tips for relating to your autistic loved ones. We really are fortunate to live in a day and age when so much material is available to us.