Study adds evidence to growing belief that current clinical tools fail to capture unique autism presentations in females

WASHINGTON – On parent-reporting measures, girls with autism seem to struggle more than boys with performing routine tasks like getting up and dressed or making small talk, even when the study group is normalized to meet similar basic clinical diagnostic criteria across sexes. The findings add to the growing evidence that girls with autism may show symptoms differently than boys, and that some of the social difficulties experienced by females with autism may be masked during clinical assessments. 

I’ve written before about autism and dating from my own perspective. This time I asked my girlfriend to weigh in

MATTHEW ROZSA

When you have an invisible disability, the first challenge is getting other people to believe you — to encourage them to express empathy for someone else. After that, though, you need to learn to listen to how your disability may negatively impact them — that is, to show the very empathy for others that you insist on receiving.

Greg Ellis

A Wollongong mother of two children on the Autism spectrum who has Asperger’s herself is calling for more opportunities for people like her to have input in community initiatives.

After being invited to be part of the new committee to make Corrimal the first "Autism Friendly Community" local resident Cassandra Kavanagh wants more people like her to have involvement in more public spaces becoming autism friendly.

“Mummy, my teacher told me to go to Tanjung Rambutan (the nation’s oldest mental institution and now known as Hospital Bahagia, located in Perak). But I’m not crazy, mummy.” The words uttered to her by her son, Dennis Liew, more than 20 years ago when he was still in primary school continue to haunt Patricia Lim.

An Australian chemical manufacturer has rejected calls for a ban or tightening of restrictions around the use of a highly toxic herbicide which poisoned a young man with autism on the New South Wales Central Coast.

Damien Terry, 21, accidently drank the commercial weedkiller — known as paraquat — from a soft drink bottle he found in a disabled toilet at the Mangrove Mountain sports complex in August.

DECLAN MARTIN

State Member for Shepparton Suzanna Sheed believes a new school for autistic children should be considered for the Victorian Government’s Shepparton Education Plan.

Ms Sheed met with Education Minister James Merlino last week following a speech in Parliament during which she asked him to consider providing appropriate services for students with autism spectrum disorder as part of the government’s plan to overhaul education in the region.

A loving Melbourne mother who was "at the end of her tether" when she tried to kill herself and her disabled adult son has been spared jail.

Yvette Nichol, 63, had been the primary carer for her autistic and epileptic son Brett, 34, for all his life until she tried to kill him and herself at their Eltham North home on May 27.

The court heard Yvette Nichol (left) was a loving mother who reached the end of her tether as sole carer of her disabled son.

Photo: Mal Fairclough

DOMANII CAMERON

A TOWNSVILLE doctor has denied asking a Condon mother to leave his practice with her young autistic son after the boy suffered a “meltdown”.

Samantha Akee visited My Family Doctors at Kirwan for an appointment yesterday with her six-year-old son Darius and her one-year-old daughter.

Ms Akee claimed she was asked to leave the practice after her son suffered the “meltdown”, due to his mental condition, because they were in an unfamiliar section of the surgery.