{"id":26,"date":"2025-03-06T16:37:08","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T16:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/fi\/autisticgirls\/?page_id=26"},"modified":"2025-08-26T10:05:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T09:05:10","slug":"assessment-and-diagnosis","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/fi\/autisticgirls\/assessment-and-diagnosis\/","title":{"rendered":"Assessment and diagnosis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">As autistic girls can present differently to their male counterparts, it is not as easy to spot the signs of autism in girls<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">. For girls\/young women,\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">these challenges may go unnoticed in school but could display as anxious, distressed, or unsettled behaviour at home.<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">Due to possible differences in presentation across contexts (home and school), it is important to work closely with the team around the child to gain a holistic assessment picture.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Possible indicators of Autism in girls include:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Social communication and social interaction<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The role girls take or how they appear socially may be based on intellect rather than innate social understanding.\u00a0 They may show passive, controlling or avoidant behaviour to get what they want, rather than show externalising behaviours.<\/li>\n<li>Girls may be better at using social cues e.g. through mimicking peers as a result of their observation skills<\/li>\n<li>Girls may be more aware of and more motivated by social interaction but could be more likely to have a history of failure in achieving and maintaining friendships. They may have one special friend.<\/li>\n<li>Girls may show social play, but this can often be led by peers.\u00a0 They may gravitate towards older girls for friendships for protection OR to younger friendships so they can dominate and control play.<\/li>\n<li>Girls may retain good facial recognition of emotions but have poorer ability to detect emotion from more subtle cues such as movement and posture.<\/li>\n<li>Girls may not to be diagnosed as having a language delay due to them using new words as they acquire<\/li>\n<li>Girls may more frequently engage in echolalia than boys and at a young age this may be mistaken as more advanced communication skills.<\/li>\n<li>Conversations may have an absence of social chit chat and may seem superficial in nature.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Patterns of behaviour, interests and activities<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Girls may collect information on people, rather than things.<\/li>\n<li>Girls may have similar interests to their female peers, but the focus and intensity may be greater.<\/li>\n<li>Girls may be more likely to have a rich and elaborate fantasy world and imaginary friends, which they may not share with peers. They may have difficulty separating reality from fantasy.<\/li>\n<li>Girls may use scripts that they have learnt which may mask a lack of understanding.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">If there are concerns that a female pupil you support may be autistic and considering a referral to the Neurodevelopmental Pathway, here are some tools that can<\/span><span data-contrast=\"none\">\u00a0support you to gather assessment information:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span class=\"TextRun SCXW151168996 BCX8\" lang=\"EN-GB\" xml:lang=\"EN-GB\" data-contrast=\"auto\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW151168996 BCX8\">Link to Neurodiversity tile on the Intranet &#8211; <\/span><\/span><a class=\"Hyperlink SCXW151168996 BCX8\" href=\"https:\/\/fifecloud.sharepoint.com\/:u:\/r\/sites\/SchoolsEd\/SitePages\/Neurodevelopmental-Conditions-and-Learning-Differences.aspx?csf=1&amp;web=1&amp;e=RCFsNB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><span class=\"TextRun Underlined SCXW151168996 BCX8\" lang=\"EN-GB\" xml:lang=\"EN-GB\" data-contrast=\"none\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW151168996 BCX8\" data-ccp-charstyle=\"Hyperlink\">Neurodevelopmental Conditions and Learning Differences<\/span><\/span><\/a><span class=\"EOP SCXW151168996 BCX8\" data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;335559685&quot;:-20,&quot;335559737&quot;:-20}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span data-contrast=\"none\">Dimensions tool (Helps to gather balanced assessment picture of home \u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dimensions.covwarkpt.nhs.uk\/PublicLanding.aspx\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\">https:\/\/dimensions.covwarkpt.nhs.uk\/PublicLanding.aspx<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><span data-contrast=\"none\">Teacher trawl documents\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"TextRun SCXW151168996 BCX8\" lang=\"EN-GB\" xml:lang=\"EN-GB\" data-contrast=\"auto\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW151168996 BCX8\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/fi\/public\/autisticgirls\/uploads\/sites\/14731\/2025\/05\/20094530\/subject-trawl-for-secondary-AAP.docx\">subject trawl for secondary AAP<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000\">While we may explore the need for an autism assessment, it is equally important to identify the individual needs of the child and provide support to help them cope better in school.<\/span><span style=\"color: #999999\"> Please speak with your link Educational Psychologist if you require further support with this &#8211; (discuss with ASD network)<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As autistic girls can present differently to their male counterparts, it is not as easy to spot the signs of autism in girls. For girls\/young women,\u00a0these challenges may go unnoticed in school but could display as anxious, distressed, or unsettled behaviour at home.\u00a0Due to possible differences in presentation across contexts (home and school), it is &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/fi\/autisticgirls\/assessment-and-diagnosis\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Assessment and diagnosis<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25183,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-26","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/fi\/autisticgirls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/fi\/autisticgirls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/fi\/autisticgirls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/fi\/autisticgirls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25183"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/fi\/autisticgirls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/fi\/autisticgirls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":758,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/fi\/autisticgirls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26\/revisions\/758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/fi\/autisticgirls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}