Overview

• A 20-year study of over 2,500 toddlers found no clinical differences in autistic traits between male and female children at the time of diagnosis.
• The research, published in *Nature Human Behaviour*, challenges prior assumptions that autism manifests differently in boys and girls during early childhood.
• Findings indicate that autistic toddlers cluster into subtypes based on developmental traits rather than sex, suggesting a shift in focus for early intervention strategies.
• Typically developing female toddlers showed advanced social, language, and daily living skills compared to males, consistent with prior research on early childhood development.
• Researchers propose that sex differences in autism may emerge later in life due to psychosocial or biological factors, warranting long-term studies for further investigation.