This article in the New York Times speaks about how autism is often thought of as a boys’ affliction."Boys are three or four times as likely as girls to have classic autism (autism with mental retardation, which is now often referred to as cognitive impairment). The sex ratio is even more imbalanced for diagnoses that include normal intelligence along with the features of autism — social and communication impairments and restricted interests; this is called Asperger’s syndrome (when there is no speech delay) or high-functioning autism or, more generally, being “on the autistic spectrum.” Among kids in this category, referral rates are in the range of 10 boys for every girl.
Girls are often "culled" from autism research as they are too few in number to use in statistical analysis. This article reviews some new attempts to refocus the research on girls and their different presentation of the disorder. The article may be found here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/magazine/05autism-t.html?scp=6&sq=autism&st=cse
and is also referenced at the bottom of the page.
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