EBD Blog

Under the headline, “What Autistic Girls Are Made Of” in the New York (NY, US) Times, Emily Bazelon has a feature article about selected issues that are associated with Autism among females. Ms. Bazelon, who also writes for Slate, provided a sensitive and nuanced portrait that includes discussions with experts but repeatedly returns to the case of a girl name Caitlyn.

Using Caitlyn’s story as a touch-stone, Ms. Bazelon breaks myths and illustrates some larger or higher-order problems with how we see individuals with Autism.

Contrary to the Asperger’s stereotype, Caitlyn struggles in math but tests in the highly gifted range in reading and writing. This is another sex difference that Lord sees among her patients. “I don’t have any real data, but a lot of high-functioning girls are real readers — not great on subtleties, but they like fantasies and the ‘Baby-Sitters’ series,” she says. “The boys are much less so.”

In elementary school, Caitlyn went to special-education classes for math and social skills. At 11, as other girls began to slip out of reach, Asperger’s was diagnosed. The shift a year later to junior high for seventh grade was a jolt. By the second week of school, a few boys were mocking Caitlyn’s weight and calling her weird while other kids laughed. “No one would sit by me at lunch,” Caitlyn says. Girls told her that they didn’t want her to be in their reading group. Caitlyn did her homework, but she was too anxious to walk to the front of the room to turn it in. At home, her neighborhood friend no longer came out to play.

Read the full 5000-word article by Ms. Bazelon (free subscription may be required).