Great takedown of the NYT article on girls with autism on Autism's Edge, a blog I found via the always excellent Kristina Chew of AutismVox. I attempted to leave a comment along the lines of "Word! Testify!" but couldn't: let's just say that I've been wondering for years re diagnosis and gender bias. I'm glad that the Times article mentions (I think it mentions) the unfortunate ratios of girls:boys in spec ed classes. This was a huge issue for my friend's daughter, who went from a class with three girls and eight boys to one girl and seven boys the next year. Didn't work out so well.

Also, as one of the commentators at Autism's Edge pointed out, girls may have a harder time in m.s. b/c girls' relationships at that edge are so complicated and cruel. Which I was mulling over the other night when I heard that Primera was having a hard time at a party b/c some girl decided that the middle of a party was a great time to isolate the birthday girl and tell her some deep dark secret that could only be told then and only to the birthday girl and like one other kid, NOT Primera. Which was probably less about exclusion than filiation and attention-seeking, but nonetheless my rigid compulsive and very nosy kid was going to have a very, very hard time backing away and thinking, "Eh, Fuck her and her deep dark secret."


I've also read something to the effect that people w/AS may be more accepting of alternative lifestyles, so I'm wondering if more AS women are perhaps living gay or bisexual lives? Which would cut down on the marriage rate, I'd think.