My gorgeous daughter Abbie was diagnosed with autistic in June 2014. As her Mum I had noticed that she wasn’t developing or maturing as quickly as her peers, but as she didn’t show any of the typical autistic traits I didn’t really consider that she may be on the spectrum. I did seek advice from both medical and education professionals but was told that “ She’s just immature and she will catch up in her own time”.

Roll on another few years and my anxieties grew as the social competence gap seemed to be widening. It was when she was 13 that I started to research more thoroughly and luckily found a private pediatrician who was well informed on the subject of how autism presents in women and girls. Within a couple of hours of her meeting Abbie we had a diagnosis.

I felt very cross that several years had been wasted when we could have been supporting Abbie in a more helpful and targeted way. I don’t blame the professionals – I am an early years teacher and have been for over 25 years and I didn’t know what to look for. The information about how females present is not “out there”.