Diagnostic tests for women with autism fall short

Extract from article by Ann Griswold on Spectrum website on 11 March 201:

Women with autism show fewer repetitive behaviors than men with the condition on a standard diagnostic test. This difference may lead to a ‘partial’ diagnosis for many women, qualifying them for only limited services, according to the largest study of adults with autism to date.

Clinicians may diagnose just 1 girl with autism for every 10 boys in children of average intelligence, and her diagnosis may be years overdue, according to some reports. Most diagnostic assessments are based on research in boys with autism and may be biased toward behaviors typically seen in these boys. So it is unclear whether fewer girls have autism, or whether the features of autism in girls and women are simply distinct and harder to recognize.

Either way, girls who go undiagnosed in childhood may find it difficult to obtain an autism diagnosis later, suggest the new findings, which appeared 22 January in Autism. (See below)

A primary reason for this difficulty may be that women don’t show repetitive behaviors and restricted interests — or don’t show them in a way that is obvious to caregivers or clinicians.

“The most striking thing is the difference in repetitive behaviors between males and females,” says Grainne McAlonan, clinical reader in translational neurodevelopment at Kings College London and a senior researcher on the study. “That may have an impact on the way we recognize autism in females, and consequently whether those females get access to services.”

The study points to the possibility that women and men with autism present differently and may benefit from diagnostic tools that take gender differences into account….

Read the full article: https://spectrumnews.org/news/diagnostic-tests-for-women-with-autism-fall-short/

References:

Wilson C.E. et al. Autism Epub ahead of print (2016) Pubmed

Harrop C. et al. Autism Epub ahead of print (2016) Pubmed

CDC Offers New Stats On Disability Prevalence - USA

globe80 Article in DisabilityScoop by Shaun Heasley, March 14, 2016 -

More than 1 in 7 American children have a mental, behavioral or developmental disorder, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but prevalence is far from steady across the country.

At the high end, 21.5 percent of kids in Arkansas and Kentucky have one of the conditions. By contrast, California logs the lowest rate in the nation at 10.6 percent.

The findings published this month in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report rely on statistics collected as part of the 2011-2012 National Survey of Children’s Health on more than 35,000 kids ages 2 to 8.

Europe in Action conference on Inclusive Education – Lisbon, Portugal, May 2016

inceuro80 Inclusion Europe has partnered with its Portuguese national member Fenacerci to run an engaging event that will address Inclusive Education and the role of families in the promotion and implementation of an inclusive school.

The struggle for Inclusive Education is one of the areas where our organisations have been involved since their inception, considering that only schools built on diversity and interaction promote equality in person-centered responses, opportunities and responding to specific educational needs, with the ultimate goal of success of the educational process.

With this conference, we intend to address and reflect on some fundamental issues that have been at the core of the debate on inclusive schools, namely:

enhance the role of families in terms of decision-making on education;
safeguard the complementarity between the approaches that are made in the school and its projection in the family context;
promoting models of empowerment and empowerment of families, so that they can take on effectively an intervening role in schools;
how to streamline and facilitate sharing processes among all stakeholders (professionals, families and people with disabilities) in order to provide conditions that promote inclusion;
how to organize and implement a school where education is both available to all and tailored to each one;
think about the role of resource centres, to ensure operating conditions and financing to ensure their effectiveness;
how can families promote and defend the necessary conditions so that education is not exhausted in the compulsory school cycle and extends throughout life.

Visit: http://www.e-include.info/news/372-register-europe-in-action-2016-lisbon

Sustainable Development Goals and Gender Equality: the role of family policies and exchange of good practices. April 2016, Amsterdam, Netherlands

coface_thumb_medium180_101 COFACE, the Confederation of Family Organisations in the European Union, in cooperation with the UN Focal Point on the Family Division (for Social Policy and Development, Department of Economic and Social Affairs), is organising an international conference on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The conference will put a spotlight on the role of family policies in the implementation of the SDGs and specifically engage in one of the most important and holistic targets of the SDGs: to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls (Goal 5).

Visit: http://www.coface-eu.org/en/upload/Amsterdam/COFACE%20Conference%20SDGs%20DRAFT%20AGENDA.pdf