Abstract
Autism as a diagnosis has changed considerably since Leo Kanner first described autistic syndrome in the 1940s and applied it to a relatively small group of institutionalised children exhibiting a distinct set of traits, with around 1.1% of people in England now thought to be autistic (National Autistic Society, 2021). Autism has long been thought to be a condition found predominantly in males, with a ratio of around 5:1 often cited, however over recent years this figure appears to have reduced as more women and girls are diagnosed and as a richer understanding of the way in which autistic trails may manifest in females is adopted (Bargiela, Steward and Mandy, 2016; Milner et al, 2019).