Media Room

Autism-Girls & Boys

April is Autism Awareness Month and for some reason, I am more excited than usual. I feel like I have been either paying more attention to the media and their focus on autism or the Autistic community and supporters are increasing their presence and making a bigger name for themselves. Could be both, I just know that Autism has become quite the topic for me as of late. More and more young kids are growing up Autistic and I am realizing the prevalence in young boys and the overall effects autism has on both genders. I was reading a great article from an intern at NAMI. It really got my mind rolling.

Young females seem to be on a more complicated spectrum of the condition , as they seem to be affected more harshly as their same aged male peer. They have to display a variety of the Autistic traits and factors for the condition to even be noticeable. Girls display different brain activity, & carry more mutations than boys. They seem to be taking longer to develop and have more issues with social interaction than younger boys. I dont know what to attribute all of this to but I thought about the idea of Darwin’s Natural selection. Somewhere in the evolutionary change, the variation in characteristics and combinations in each generation may have created what we have come to understand as autism. Over time, I think males became more susceptible to the condition and naturally adapted to it. Maybe some characteristics helped people to survive and eventually reproduced throughout the generations, spreading throughout our population. This could explain why males are mostly sustained and active with Autism in comparison to girls. I just dont think that the variance has worked out its kinks yet with females, so the mutations (effects) are still trying to figure out how to work best together.

Either way, Autism is certainly becoming more common. I think the more it surfaces and the more conversation all us spark about it, will help the Autistic community to live freely and comfortably. I’m buying a Puzzle Ribbon to put in my car. My little cousin is Autistic and I know his little heart would love it. #AutismAwarenessMonth

Btw, here is the article that sparked my interest.. validated most of what I knew. Check it out,