October 24, 2018

Finding ASD in the Girls who Camouflage

By: Rachel Piper & Suzi Naguib, Psy.D.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that impacts the social communication abilities of individuals throughout their lifespan. For many individuals on the autism spectrum, these impairments are quite noticeable. For other individuals on the autism spectrum, they are more able to compensate and engage in behaviors that camouflages their autism symptoms. For these individuals, the symptoms are still present and impact a person’s well-being, but may not be as visible to other people in their life. Camouflaging symptoms may also get in the way of individuals being accurately diagnosed and accessing treatment, since their struggles are not visible to others. This blog will outline what this camouflage phenomenon looks like in individuals with ASD, and the signs a parent can look out for if they think that their child may be camouflaging autism symptoms.

Defining Camouflage

As the name implies, camouflaging is a strategy individuals on the autism spectrum use to blend in with their social environment. Camouflage is an active, constant and elaborate effort to conform to social norms. It gives the impression that the social challenges an individual with autism is facing are minimized or non-existent, when they can actually be quite impairing. This phenomenon is particularly common among women and girls on the autism spectrum. Identifying individuals who are camouflaging their autism symptoms can be tricky, but when an individual is identified, it can be incredibly beneficial to their development over time.

Camouflaging can take many forms, including:

  • Feigning interest in a group’s topic of interest
  • Using learned phrases or pre-prepared jokes
  • Faking “eye-contact” by looking between a person’s eyes
  • Mimicking other people’s social behaviors
  • Imitating facial expressions and gestures
  • Practicing smiling to initiate conversations
  • Memorizing precreated anecdotes or scripts
  • Disguising “stimming” behaviors
  • Learning to speak more quietly
  • Learning not to make personal remarks

Impact of Camouflaging

Camouflaging can help individuals to make friends, find and maintain employment, meet romantic partners, and provide protection from being shunned. Camouflage is typically carried out due to the desire to be viewed as “normal”. While adaptability can be beneficial, camouflaging can also take a physical and emotional toll on the individual attempting to camouflage their behaviors. Identifying individuals camouflaging their symptoms can lead to a sense of relief and the possibility of receiving support from mental health professionals and from the ASD community.

Signs Your Child May be Camouflaging ASD Symptoms

As a parent, here are some signs you can look out for in a child who may be attempting to camouflage their symptoms:

  1. Intense interests: Girls with ASD are often missed because their intense interests seem typical, such as an interest in animals, dolls, or celebrities. The key thing to notice is not what the interests are, but whether they tend to be repetitive or all encompassing.
  2. Depression: While changing their outward appearance to fit in with their social environments, individuals camouflaging ASD symptoms may feel an increased sense of loneliness believing that their friendships feel fake. It is also possible that individuals feel they are hiding their true self and losing their identity, possibly leading to symptoms of depression.  
  3. Disguising stimming behaviors: “Stimming” is a buzzword for stimulating behaviors, such as hand flapping and spinning. Instead of these more obvious behaviors, a child may be disguising it as sucking, clenching teeth, tensing and relaxing muscles, or other body movements, such as tapping a pen or doodling.
  4. Using learned phrases, anecdotes, or pre-prepared jokes: For some individuals with ASD, despite having well developed formal language skills, using language to communicate with others can be challenging. One technique used to camouflage symptoms is pre-preparing phrases, anecdotes or jokes that they have heard from others or heard on the television.
  5. Faking Eye-contact: Eye-contact is crucial to participating in social interactions with peers. While it may appear your child is making eye-contact, some individuals are actually looking past your shoulder or staring between your eyes since they understand the importance of eye-contact, but it is not comfortable for them.
  6. Imitating facial expressions or gestures: People often mimic the facial expressions and gestures of those that they are close with, but typically people can use their own spontaneous gestures and facial expressions. This imitation would likely be carried out after seeing another person’s response to a situation in the moment, taking their cues from others most of the time rather than spontaneously responding to a situation.
  7. Practicing speaking more quietly: While volume control can be a challenge, some individuals with ASD learn that it is important to speak in a quieter voice, so they shift from using their usual loud speaking voice to a quieter speaking voice over time.

 

If you notice that your young child seems to be struggling socially, consider speaking with a professional. Early intervention for ASD is important in order to gain access to services and to provide the opportunity for the greatest improvement in symptoms over time.

To contact Sunfield, please call 734-222-9277.

 

References

  1. Kreiser, N. L., & White, S. W. (2014). ASD in females: are we overstating the gender difference in diagnosis?. Clinical child and family psychology review, 17(1), 67-84.
  2. Lai, M. C., Lombardo, M. V., Ruigrok, A. N., Chakrabarti, B., Auyeung, B., Szatmari, P., … & MRC AIMS Consortium. (2017). Quantifying and exploring camouflaging in men and women with autism. Autism, 21(6), 690-702.
  3. Ratto, A. B., Kenworthy, L., Yerys, B. E., Bascom, J., Wieckowski, A. T., White, S. W., … & Scarpa, A. (2018). What about the girls? Sex-based differences in autistic traits and adaptive skills. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 48(5), 1698-1711.
  4. Russo, Francine. (2018). The Costs of Camouflaging. https://www.spectrumnews.org/features/deep-dive/costs-camouflaging-autism/
  5. Wright, Jessica. (2017). Quantifying Camouflaging in Autism. https://www.spectrumnews.org/news/new-method-aims-quantify-camouflaging-autism/