While both men and women are known to camouflage their autism traits, it is particularly common in girls and women on the spectrum and is thought to be one of the reasons females are less likely to receive a diagnosis.
Masking is a word used to describe something seen in many children with ASD – when they learn, practice, and perform certain behaviours and suppress others in order to be more like the people around them.
It's critical to understand what's going on because camouflaging is associated with many adverse outcomes in autistic individuals, like higher anxiety and depression. We are seeing studies that show masking in girls as young as 7 or 8 years old on the school playground.
Studies have estimated that up to 94% of people with autism have or will attempt to mask their symptoms at some point during their lives, which can lead to long-term impacts on those living with the condition.
All children are different, but if they change character when they go from school to home, or go into meltdown, or appear exhausted, it might be a sign that they are masking in public.
What are 'masking' and 'camouflaging' in the context of autism and ADHD? Many autistic people and ADHD-ers report using “masking” and “camouflaging” in their lives. This is where people conceal certain traits and replace them with neurotypical ones to avoid being recognised as neurominorities.
Masking may involve suppressing certain behaviours we find soothing but that others think are 'weird', such as stimming or intense interests. It can also mean mimicking the behaviour of those around us, such as copying non-verbal behaviours, and developing complex social scripts to get by in social situations.
The mental and emotional energy it takes to mask often results in an unleashing of pent up emotions when back in their safe place, most often at home. This is known as the coke bottle effect.
Some developmental health professionals refer to PDD-NOS as “subthreshold autism." In other words, it's the diagnosis they use for someone who has some but not all characteristics of autism or who has relatively mild symptoms.
Children can be misdiagnosed as having Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and not actually be autistic. It is concerning enough for a parent to be told their child is on the Autism Spectrum, but for a child to be misdiagnosed as having autism can cause unnecessary stress and worry for the family.
We found that masking is not limited to autistic people, which is consistent with theory on identity and stigma management. However, some aspects of masking appear to be specific to the autistic experience (i.e., suppressing stims).
Masking is a common ADHD coping mechanism. (Masking, to be clear, isn't exclusive to ADHD; it is closely related to neurodivergence, and most often thought of in connection to autism.1)
It's quite common for autistic children who do not appear to have any behavioural difficulties at school to behave differently at home. Tony Attwood refers to this as the Jekyll and Hyde character (Attwood, 1998). In section, we look at some of the reasons behind this behaviour, and offer tips to parents and carers.
Diagnosing autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be difficult because there is no medical test, like a blood test, to diagnose the disorder. Doctors look at the child's developmental history and behavior to make a diagnosis. ASD can sometimes be detected at 18 months of age or younger.
Masking Is a Trauma Response
When an autistic person masks, it means they are consciously or unconsciously attempting to hide or at least minimize their autistic traits while simultaneously emulating neurotypical mannerisms such as facial expressions, tone of voice, vocal cadence, eye contact, etc.
Common Signs of Fawning:
A lack of personal identity. Having an inability to say “no” Ignoring your own beliefs, ideas and values and following other people's.
ADHD is not on the autism spectrum, but they have some of the same symptoms. And having one of these conditions increases the chances of having the other. Experts have changed the way they think about how autism and ADHD are related.
The 'autism accent'.
Professionals would describe this as abnormal speech patterns. I'm not sure what specifically is different about our voices, but some autistic people find that they are often asked about their voice or accent. I have been. In primary school other kids used to mock my voice.
Not all autistic children will be aware they are masking. Why does masking happen? we see at home and at school are common and can be a sign of a problem building up. Make the school aware that your child might not be able to initiate, express their true feelings or ask for help.