Autism Decrease in Symptoms Severity Quantified in Young Girls Compared to Boys

A study conducted analysis on the changes of symptoms severity in girls and boys with autism. Researchers found that roughly 30% of children showed fewer symptoms severity at age 6 compared to symptoms at age 3. Girls, however, were seen to be more likely to experience decreases in symptoms severity compared to boys of the same age, who were seen to be more likely to experience an increase in symptom severity.

What is Autism?

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Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or Autism is a broad range of conditions distinguished by social skills challenges, repetitive behaviors, nonverbal and speech communication challenges, according to Autism Speaks Organization. In the United States, roughly 1 in 54 children are diagnosed with autism.

Although there is no one type of autism, there are various subtypes mostly influenced by a combination of environmental and genetic factors. Since autism is a spectrum disorder, each person diagnosed with autism has a specific set of strengths and challenges. The way people with autism think, learn, and solve problems can vary from highly skilled to severely challenged. With some requiring significant support in their day-to-day lives.

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Symptom Severity in Young Girls and Boys

Einat Wiazbard-Bartov, lead author, and her team were motivated by the lack of consistent studies concerning symptoms severity in young children diagnosed with autism. Some studies suggest that a majority of children diagnosed with autism showed stable symptoms over time, while others say an increase of substantial changes in symptoms severity can be quantified.

Identifying the different trajectories could help researchers pinpoint markers for childer with ASD who are more likely to experience an increase, decrease, or stable symptoms over time. Importantly the insight could help clinicians identify which children would benefit more from intervention programs.

Researchers collected data from 125 children diagnosed with autism that were part of a larger longitudinal study named the Autism Phenome Project. The sample included 36 girls and 86 boys.

The study calculated the extent that each child's symptoms severity would change from their initial assessment to the follow-ups. The results published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, entitled "Trajectories of Autism Symptom Severity Change During Early Childhood," showed that the decreasing severity group included a majority of girls. The group also had children with higher average IQs and more children with adaptive functioning. The increasing severity group, however, had a disproportionately low number of young girls, as well as lower IQ average scores and reduced adaptive skills.

The current understanding of ASD assumes that girls with autism experience more severity in symptoms compared to boys. But authors of the study say that their results surprisingly show that girls are more likely to experiences a decrease in symptoms severity than boys who are seen to have more likely means of increased symptom severity PsyPost reports.

The unexpected findings are credited to the fact the girls diagnosed with autism are more likely to 'mask' their symptoms. It could be that young girls in the study already learned to camouflage their symptoms, thereby creating an illusion of symptoms decline.