16214-SGW-Sixth Form Journal 2023-HI Res

FEMINISM

“Girls suffering with dyslexia, dyspraxia and other disorders that make learning in the normal way difficult are less likely to get diagnosed at a younger age.” MARTHA DOYLE

Another reason for the later diagnoses in women is down to the stereotypes of young girls that allow teachers and carers to overlook symptoms of neurodevelopmental disorders. Many girls with ADHD are labelled as ‘chatterboxes’ when they disrupt classes or ‘just hormonal’ when they get anxious and upset. So many symptoms of these disorders are viewed as character traits or emotional issues rather than signs of social and learning difficulties. Hyper fixation is a common sign of autism and ADHD however their obsessions with certain things especially music and bands, films and TV shows is often mistaken for stereotypical teenage girl ‘fangirling’ and therefore is not investigated. Additionally, later diagnoses could be down to the fact that most research surrounding these disorders was initially focused on men. This means that signs of neurodevelopmental disorders in women are still much of a mystery and more funding needs to be put into researching the female brain. The lack of female-specific research is a big problem that is affecting lots of female diagnostics in the healthcare industry. There is considerable scientific research

that suggests a difference between male and female brains, so why is biomedical research mostly conducted on males? If this continues neurodevelopmental disorders in women will continue to be guesswork for many and awareness cannot yet be raised to help young girls struggling with their unique brains. In conclusion, there are various causes for the later diagnoses of neurodevelopmental disorders in women. However, I would argue that the lack of research surrounding how female brains work differently to men’s is the leading cause of this issue. Once significant research occurs to help understand the signs and effects of these disorders, sufficient awareness can finally be raised to help girls question if they should be tested or not. Finally, diagnosing neurodevelopmental disorders in young girls and women is so important, it can help them understand themselves and how they learn and interact with others. Diagnosis can allow girls to find their strengths and weaknesses as well as become more confident and seek out support if they require. So, no matter what the main cause is it is so important that this problem is tackled as soon as possible.

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