As such, it seems implausible that gender would not have a significant impact on the expression of ASD. Furthermore, gender has been shown to impact greatly on many major aspects of development for instance, through childhood, males demonstrate superior motor skills while female children demonstrate more advanced interpersonal and emotional skills. The supposed gender invariance is not consistent with gender differences evident in the typically developing (TD) population, such as superior social skills observed in females or better friendship stability seen in young males. However, a fundamental flaw exists in this argument. Among high functioning males and females, there is a common belief that males and females do not differ behaviourally, emotionally or intellectually. It is generally accepted that, for every female diagnosed with ASD, there are at least four males diagnosed, whereas for those who are also profoundly intellectually disabled the ratio is closer to two males for each female. Within this limited literature, it has been suggested that, in order for females to be diagnosed with ASD, they will generally be more impaired than males and frequently have an accompanying intellectual disability. However, research into the female phenotype has been limited and findings have generally been inconsistent. Most of this research has been undertaken focusing on males with high functioning autism or Aspergers Syndrome (hereafter referred to as ASD). In recent years, there has been a considerable body of research exploring the diagnostic criteria and differing behavioural expressions of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Further research is now required to examine the underlying causes for this phenomenon in order to develop gender-appropriate diagnostic criteria and interventions for ASD. This finding is supported by clinical reports that females with ASD have more developed social skills than males with ASD. Interestingly, females with ASD and TD males displayed similar scores on the FQ. Moreover, the effect of ASD was independent of gender. Further, regardless of gender, children with ASD demonstrated lower scores than TD children. It was found that, independent of diagnosis, females demonstrated higher scores on the FQ than males. One parent of each child completed the FQ to assess whether there are differences in perception of friendships between parents and children. One hundred and one 10- to 16-year-olds (ASD females, n = 25 typically developing (TD) females, n = 25 ASD males, n = 25 TD males, n = 26) were interviewed (using the friendship questionnaire (FQ)) with high scores indicating the child has close, empathetic and supportive relationships. We hypothesised that females with ASD would display better social skills than males with ASD on a test of friendship and social function. This may explain the under-diagnosis of females with ASD. Clinical observations suggest that females with ASD superficially demonstrate better social and emotional skills than males with ASD, which may camouflage other diagnostic features. A growing body of research that focused on females with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) questions the assumption of gender invariance in ASD. Four times as many males are diagnosed with high functioning autism compared to females.
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