Gender Differences During Toddlerhood in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Prospective Community-Based Longitudinal Follow-Up Study.

Gender Differences During Toddlerhood in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Prospective Community-Based Longitudinal Follow-Up Study. J Autism Dev Disord. 2018 Mar 01;: Authors: Lawson LP, Joshi R, Barbaro J, Dissanayake C Abstract Relatively few studies have examined gender differences in infants and toddlers, and most focus on clinically referred samples or high-risk infant cohorts. The current study aimed to examine gender differences in early autism manifestations and cognitive development in a community-ascertained sample. In total, 46 males and 21 females with ASD were seen at approximately 24 and 48 months of age. No significant gender differences were observed on overall cognitive ability, verbal skills, non-verbal skills, overall autism severity, or restricted repetitive behaviours. However, females were found to exhibit more social communication impairments than males. These findings may indicate that female toddlers with less severe or different, social communication impairments may be more likely to be missed during routine surveillance during toddlerhood. PMID: 29497988 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: J Autism Dev Disord Source Type: research