Apoorva Mandavilli The Editor-In-Chief Of Spectrum, An

Understand how autistic spectrum conditions can impact on the lives of individuals and those around them

Stereotypes tend to be made by those who lack understanding whether is unintentional or not. Understanding is the key to accepting and valuing all differences. Whether it is about our race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or whatever else makes up an individual’s identity. It is this lack of understanding that normally leads to stereotyped views, prejudice and discrimination. This sadly is mostly the case for those with autistic spectrum conditions and has a large affect on not only the

Many of us have heard about Autism, also knows as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Some have a family member, a friend, or know someone who has ASD. Increasingly it is becoming a more common disability. “Autism is one of the fastest-growing developmental disorders in the U.S” (Autism Speaks). Autism has no respect for gender, race, social class and or ethnicity. “Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder that involves abnormal development and function of the brain.” (Autism Center of Excellence) People who have autism have a lot of difficulties with social skills, communication and also will develop behavior issues. These behavior problems of an individual with autism can vary at times and can go from mild to severe. According to the Autism Science Foundation it says,” Many people with the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) also have unusual ways of learning, paying attention, and reacting to different sensations. The thinking and learning abilities of people with ASD can vary—from gifted to severely challenged.” The causes and symptoms, as well as the diagnosis, and the treatments of autism vary.

HW: Meta-Analysis- Investigating the genetic and prognostic Sex Differences in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Introduction: While Autism Spectrum disorder (ASD) has been researched extensively, the role of gender in this disease is still poorly understood. With a 4:1 gender distribution in the diagnosis of ASD, many research studies have attempted to explain this difference (Fombonne,2009). Current research has theorized about various different etiologies for this gender discrepancy, such as a female protective effect (Jacquemont et al., 2014). The female protective effect suggests that females must demonstrate higher levels of genetic risk factors in order to reach clinically impaired functional status and therefore be diagnosed (Chawarska,

Autism is one of the most common disorders among children in the United States. Autism affects 1 in 68 children (Center for Disease Control, 2014). By comparison, this is more children than are affected by diabetes, AIDS, cancer, cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy or Down syndrome – combined (Autism Speaks, 2012). Boys are four times more likely to have autism than girls. This disorder typically appears during the first three years of life.

Bekah, age 12 has moderate level Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Her life does not fit the typical cognitive, linguistic, and socio-emotional development of an adolescent girl. A diagnosis of moderate level Autism Spectrum Disorder is described in the article, Autism-The Basics, Daymut (2009) as, “a developmental disorder, impairing an individual’s

These experiences begin to show Catherine just how little is understood about this behavioral disorder. It is from this ignorance surrounding the nature of autism that Catherine discovers that the majority of current treatments do not address the autistic individual at all; most focus on counseling the Mothers of autistic children essentially surrendering to the disorder.

I. Introduction A. Topic- Autism and how gender plays a role when doing cognitive learning. a. The rate of autism in children is 1 in every 68 and males have a rate that is 4 times higher than females. b. Autism effects children from all cultures, racial, and social backgrounds. B. Background-

The overall statistics, according to the data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, shows that 1 in 68 children in the U.S has autism, 1 in 42 boys have autism while 1 in 189 girls has autism. Autism is so rare in females that, according to an article from the New York Times, they are considered to be “research orphans” because it so difficult to find enough females with the disorder to do a proper research on (Bazelon). Despite the lack of autistic female subject, there has been a lot of differences in the typical behavior of males and females with autism. According to Bazelon, young females tends to do better in behavior than males because they are less likely to set off tantrums and are easier to handle. However, as teenagers, girls tends to suffer from severe depression and anxiety because they are unable to maintain friendship with other females while some autistic males do maintain some friendships with other peers despite their awkwardness. Basically, most teenage females engage in a lot of social networks thus making bonds with typical females a challenge as autistic females do not share the same interests. Males do not face the same difficulties because their expectations are not as high as females. The huge difference of autism in gender is so significant that it even the typical gender roles are somewhat

Autism is affecting children of the U.S.at a rate of one out of every 68.Meaning one out of 68 children will be diagnosed with ASD. This disorder occurs more often among boys than girls. ASD affects over 3 million individuals in the U.S. Statistics show that the number of people diagnosed has increased by 17% within a year. There is no explanation, Scientists do not know the cause nor is there a cure for ASD. However it is definitely on the rise. It is unknown whether the growing number shows a real increase or is the sudden increase as a result of improved detection by physicians.

Founding editor of Spectrum, Apoorva Mandavilli recounts information she has found throughout many studies particularly pertaining to autism in females. She is an accomplished writer with her work appearing in many famous magazines and news articles such as, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Slate, Nature, and many others. Throughout her story “The Lost girls” Mandavilli explains the differences in how women and men react to the same thing as well as the treatments they undergo. She writes a very informative but powerful story by using perspectives of a few separate instances of autism. She then goes on to explain the differences in boys and girls social interactions.

The majority of females were indecisive about whether families, with an autistic child, should continue to reproduce, even if it increases the chances of their next child having the same disorder. Possible reasons for this could be because they may believe a woman should be allowed to decide for herself whether she continues to procreate or not. Meanwhile, 23% of males were against the idea of allowing women to continue

Women are stereotyped to not have autism. However, there was very few studies in the past that were done on girls. Most scientist were only using

Tens of millions of people have been diagnosed with Autism worldwide, effecting both genders, all races, ethnicities and people from all socioeconomic classes. In 2010 a Surveillance Summary was conducted in the United States, where it identified that one in 68 children are diagnosed with Autism (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). It has been recognised

Through much study, scientists have found that in certain genetic conditions, gender does play a role. Evan Eichler is a geneticist at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. Small studies had hinted that girls could endure far more harmful autism-linked mutations than boys before developing the disease. So he and colleagues decided to probe whether this association held up in a bigger group of people diagnosed with autism or with other disorders that trace to changes in how the brain develops. To do this, the team tapped into two large collections of genetic data. One came from more than 15,000 people with intellectual disabilities. A second came from 762 families, each with an autistic child. Eichler’s team suspects that parents of the kids in the two groups it studied had such mutations and then passed them along to their children. On average, females in both of the studied groups had more harmful mutations than did the males. This was true for large chunks of missing or repeated DNA as well as for small, single letter mutations. “No matter what class of mutation we looked at, females had more,” Eichler says. Consider