@inproceedings{01HHPJMB0ZFNDVHAR6SGZ815ZC,
  abstract     = {{Introduction: The sex/gender difference in the prevalence of autism spectrum is well recognized. Moreover, increased evidence suggests that autism spectrum may manifest differently in males and females which could lead to a diagnostic sex/gender bias. To fully understand the nature of autism spectrum, it is important to produce scientific information of autism spectrum in both sexes/genders. The aim of this study was to examine speech disfluencies in autistic and non-autistic young adults, and to compare disfluencies between males and females. 
Methods: The participant groups consisted of autistic males (n = 7), autistic females (n = 7), non-autistic males (n = 7), and non-autistic females (n = 7) aged 19–30 years. There were no group differences in age, general ability, and verbal comprehension. Speech disfluencies were analyzed from a narrative speech sample and categorized as typical, stuttering-like, and atypical disfluencies, which further formed the total disfluency frequency (e.g., Scaler Scott et al., 2014). Non-parametric statistical tests were used for group comparisons. 
Results: Preliminary results showed that on average, males had higher frequency of each disfluency types when compared to females in both groups, however, statistically significant between-group differences were not detected. The autistic males produced significantly more typical and stuttering-like disfluencies than the non-autistic males or females. The autistic females produced significantly more stuttering-like disfluencies than the non-autistic females, but no other differences were observed. There were no significant differences in disfluencies between autistic females and non-autistic males. 
Discussion: The mean disfluency profiles of the groups indicate a continuum in which the non-autistic females locate in the one end having the lowest disfluency frequency, and the autistic males locate in the other end having the highest disfluency frequency. The autistic females and the non-autistic males locate somewhere between those ends. The results support the conception that autism spectrum could manifest differently in males and females. 

This study was funded by the Academy of Finland, Eudaimonia, A. and K. A. Snellman Foundation, Oskar Öflund’s Foundation, the Olvi Foundation, the Anna Vuorio Fund, and the Finnish Brain Foundation. 
The authors declare no conflict of interests.}},
  author       = {{Pirinen, Veera and Loukusa, Soile and Dindar, Katja and Mäkinen, Leena and Hurtig, Tuula and Jussila, Katja and Mattila, Marja-Leena and Eggers, Kurt}},
  booktitle    = {{13th Autism-Europe International Congress, Abstracts}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  location     = {{Krákow, Poland}},
  publisher    = {{Autism-Europe}},
  title        = {{Sex/gender differences in speech disfluencies in autistic and non-austistic young adults}},
  url          = {{https://www.autismcongress2022.org/conf-data/AE2022/files/Sesja%20e-plakatowa%20PL_6_10.pdf}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}