DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GIRLS AND BOYS WITH AUTISM 1

Differences Between Girls and Boys with Autism

Kayla Benitez

Chapman University
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Reading through the research paper, Sex Differences in Autism Spectrum

Disorder: An Examination of Developmental Functioning, Autistic Symptoms, and

Coexisting Behavior Problems in Toddlers they analyzed the differences and similarities

between girls and boys especially during early childhood. Prior studies have not produced

definite conclusions; there are some that contradict one another. Therefore, in this study

the researchers hoped to investigate these sex differences. They utilized the Mullen

Scales of Early Learning, autistic symptoms to see where the children lay on the autistic

spectrum. In the study of 157 boys and 42 girls, between the ages of 1.5 and 3.9 there was

not much disparity, they showed similar strengths and weaknesses in development.

Although, they did note that girls had greater communication and sleep problems as well

as being more anxious and depressed compared to the boys. The boys experienced more

restricted, repetitive and stereotyped behavior. The study wanted to test the differences

between both sexes and provided an explanation as to why the previous studies accounted

for multiple conclusions. They provided examples as to how previous studies focused

more on boys with ASD, the sample sizes that include girls are often to small, and since

more studies have focused on boys they have profiled autistic symptoms, behaviors and

cognitive profiles based off of boys. When studying both sexes the autistic symptoms and

coexisting behavior problems need to correlate to produce accurate results, if not of

course there will be differences between girls and boys since they are not on the same

autistic spectrum.

The participants primary medical care provider referred them to an

interdisciplinary autistic clinic in a northwest region hospital. This accounted for the 499

toddlers in the study, 18-47 monthssince most of the previous findings point to
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differences in the early developmental stages. The study was based off the Autistic

spectrum disorder population therefore out of the one hundred and fifty-seven 78.9%

were male and 21.1% female. The toddlers were all diagnosed with autistic disorder

although sixty-six had Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. The

researchers made sure to take into account factors such as diagnosis, age, ethnicity, early

intervention, and educationcharacteristics that could produce differences. They

demonstrated where the children differed by evaluating them with the Mullen Scales of

Early Learning this includes T-scores for the development of Visual Reception, Fine

Motor, Expressive Language, and Receptive Language. The also scored the children

using ADOS-G which is a standardized test accessing autistic symptoms. This includes

four modules based on expressive language, 188 children were tested on modules 1 and

11 children module 2. Their scores were scaled from 0-3, 0 being no impairment and 3

being highly impaired. Parents assessed their children with criteria for autistic disorders

and completed a CBCL, as well as assessments given by licensed professionals, which

included the MSEL and ADOS-G measures. The children all met the criteria for autistic

disorder and PDD-NOS.

To control their study the researchers took precautions to administer multiple

assessments testing certain things such as the differences in sex, age, developmental

profiles etc. They utilized a multivariate analysis of variance to point out the differences

in sex characteristics; they used analysis of covariance to show differences in

developmental profiles for the factors of education, age, sex etc. and multivariate analysis

of covariance to identify domain score differences while controlling age differences. In

developmental functioning, the multivariate analysis of variance showed almost no

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change with characteristics for boys and girls in age. The analysis of covariance showed

that visual reception was higher than receptive and expressive language. The fine motor

was higher than the visual reception, receptive language and expressive language.

Finally, the expressive language was higher than the receptive language. In autistic

symptoms, the multivariate analysis of variance using sex and ADOS-G domain scores

found that girls had a higher communication score than boys while boys had a higher

restricted, repetitive and stereotyped behavior than girls but not much difference in social

interaction. The CBCL scores were not much different either, based on sex they just

found that girls have higher sleeping problems and are more prone to anxiety and

depression than the boys. Overall, there was not much difference in developmental

profiles, autistic symptoms and behavior problems in the early development of these

children.

The study was conducted well, they utilized children who already were diagnosed

with autistic disorder and assessed them in different areas from cognitive, behavioral and

developmental. Although the children were assessed by their parents and caregivers on

symptoms and behaviors the researchers tried to eliminate bias by having professional

licensed psychologists assess the multiple tests given. The study found that all the

children did exhibit symptoms of autistic disorders however theses toddlers were already

accessed as such by their primary medical provider meaning there could have been some

experimenter bias because of this preconception of diagnosis. Although this could be the

case, the multiple tests after the multivariate analysis of variance prove that these toddlers

did have autistic related problems.

The researchers took into account many previous studies involving sex
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differences in coexisting behavior problems. They accounted for the weaknesses of their

research including, the evaluation of only toddlers referred to an autistic clinicrather

than those who are not or referred to when older, intervention discrepancies, genetic and

medical information problemsthey may have influenced developmental functioning,

autistic symptoms, or coexisting behavior problems, including alternative measures and a

larger sampling size. Although they did not find many differences in developmental

functioning they did find that girls have communication problems, while boys have more

stereotyped and repetitive behaviors and interests due to the larger percent of boys with

autistic disorder.
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Individual Resources

Hartley, S. , Sikora, D. , (2009, July 7). Sex Differences in Autism Spectrum Disorder: An

Examination of Developmental Functioning, Autistic Symptoms, and Coexisting Behavior

Problems in Toddlers. Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-

009-0810-8