Bavita and Shalini Agarwal
Research Scholar and Assistant Professor
Department of Human Development and Family Studies
School of Home Science
Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (Central University)
Vidya Vihar, Raebareli Road,
Lucknow-226025, Uttar Pradesh, India
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by impairments in social reciprocity and communication and restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour. The DSM-5 states that “autism spectrum disorder is diagnosed four times more often in males than in females. The majority of children with autism also have a learning disability (mental retardation) and have average intelligence. With this background, this study was carried out with the objectives to assess category of Autism among children across gender. Methods: A standardized scale “Indian Scale for Assessment of Autism” used to assess category of autism among children. Total 100 children from different NGOs working for special children were selected for the study. In the present study descriptive statistics like frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation were used to analyse. The data and relational statistics like f-test were used to analyse the data. It was found that more than half (55.0%) of the respondents had mild autism, where, 51.1% were boys and 5.0%were girls while (43.0%) respondents had moderate autism in which 42.2% were boys and 5.0% were girls. Very few respondents (2.0%) belonged to sever autism category and all were boys. Results of hypothesis testing revealed that as the p>.05 thus, the null hypothesis was accepted stating that there exists no significant difference in category of autism across gender.
The present study showed that Autism is much more prevalent in male than female but category of autism is not gender oriented.
Keywords: Gender, Autism, Children.
