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Asked by anon-290099 on 25 Mar 2021.
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anon answered on 25 Mar 2021:
Hi,
I don’t think developing necessarily as traits really start from a very very young age.
Though my colleagues are looking at ‘compensatory behaviours’ where young peopler/adults, especially females are able to mask the symptoms. So things like learning how to talk and behave by mimicking people (or even TV shows! – a lot of people with autism have slightly American accents from watching lots of US tv shows!) to hide the symptoms of autism.
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Anon answered on 25 Mar 2021:
Autistic traits are present from a very young age, but it can sometimes take time to notice them, or to realise that they are traits of autism. Some people don’t get a diagnosis of autism until they are teenagers or fully grown adults. That doesn’t mean that the traits weren’t there before, just that they weren’t recognised as autistic. As people grow up and face new life events and challenges, some traits that weren’t so obvious before can become clearer. On the other hand, as people age they may develop ‘masking’ tendencies as Lara explained, meaning that their traits seem less obvious.
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Dennis Relojo-Howell answered on 26 Mar 2021:
Hello save430saw. The DSM-5 (the most recent one published by the American Psychiatric Association) states that in order to meet the criteria for a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, the symptoms have to present in the early developmental period (that’s before the age of 3). According to the DSM-5, symptoms of autism spectrum disorder might not fully present themselves ‘until social demands exceed limited capacities’ or it could also be because the person has learned coping skills to cover up their symptoms.
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David McGonigle answered on 26 Mar 2021:
They *can* certainly become more obvious with age, save430, but this will tend to be in those with milder autistic symptoms. As Lara says above, compensatory behaviours – often now called ‘camouflaging’ – can occur. Often people are unaware that they are even doing these things – they think that everyone is! When I was working more actively in autistic spectrum disorder, I would meet men in their 40s who had just had a diagnosis – a lot of them would say that they just began to realise that they were a bit different and had gone to their GP, and then a specialist. Autism is incredibly diverse and a difficult disorder to study – but there are many very clever people doing it!
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