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(New Zealand) Boys not diagnosed with ASD until age 8, girls, age 14; longer wait for help

Aug 8, 2019, New Zealand Herald: Health check: NZ children with autism wait half their life for diagnosis, and wait again for help https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12254889 Girls with autism spectrum disorder are diagnosed later than boys because they are better at masking it. According to one source, the average diagnosis age is 14 compared to 8 for boys. Parents are able to detect if their child has autism at about 2 or 3 years old. It might be that they don't coo or babble away when they're an infant, or that they can't string a couple of words together at age 2. Despite this ability to pick up signs of autism spectrum disorder early, children are often not diagnosed until after they've begun school in New Zealand. For girls, the wait is likely to be even longer.

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