About
Autistic Girls is a specialist autism and ADHD service based in Knutsford, Cheshire, UK that helps girls understand their differences and feel good about who they are.
How did Autistic Girls come about?
Long story short - because our founder and clinical lead, Dr Becky Quicke, couldn't find a service like this for her own family.
The more detailed version...Becky has been assessing children, adults and families in the NHS and in her own private practice since she qualified as a Clinical Psychologist in 2005.
Fast forward a number of years and in 2023, Becky went through an autism and ADHD diagnostic assessment with a family member. She described her experience as receiving the 'Ryanair' of autism/ADHD assessment services. It was basic and required more legroom! (ie time and space to explore, understand and make sense of the differences).
She came to realise that more meaningful assessment services were needed to understand autism and ADHD for those who 'mask'. In other words, those who have been conditioned to hide their differences and often experience them internally rather than always showing them externally in their behaviour. Masking is common in autistic and ADHD children assigned female at birth and identifying as girls, trans, non-binary.
Careful assessment of someone's internal experiences alongside their behaviour gives a more accurate diagnosis and provides a more meaningful assessment process.
Becky doesn't just want to diagnose autistic and ADHD girls, she wants to help them understand themselves better so they can feel good and flourish.
Once the idea of developing an autism and ADHD assessment service for girls began to grow, Becky gathered a group of experienced colleagues together who shared the same vision and passion as her.
With its' brilliant multi disciplinary team, Autistic Girls opened it's doors in October 2023 and began assessing and supporting girls, trans, non-binary young people and their families and teachers.
(We also deliver the same services for women. If you're interested in that, you're welcome to look through our Autistic Women website for more information).
We're proud of the services we're providing and excited about helping more and more autistic girls understand their differences and feel good about who they are.
How is Autistic Girls different from other services?
Many services don’t understand how autism and ADHD presents in girls and how to assess ‘under the mask’ that they hide beneath due to the stigma and shame of showing their differences.
'Autistic Girls' has specialist knowledge, experience and skills in assessing neurodivergent girls. It's our passion and purpose!
Many services stick rigidly (ironically!) to traditional/medical models of ‘deficit’ based assessments, which are shaming and discriminatory and often not suited to girls. This results in missing a diagnosis or misdiagnosing their differences as emotional issues.
'Autistic Girls' practices flexible adherence within respected assessments such as the ADOS-2 (Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale-second edition) and to DSM-5 diagnostic criteria but considers the whole constellation of assessment information. We translate the out dated 'deficits/disorder' language into 'differences/preferences'.
Many services deliver quick ‘in and out’ (with only 1 session) assessments for girls that might provide an accurate diagnosis but don't provide a meaningful process to help make sense of their neurodivergence in the context of their unique lives.
'Autistic Girls’' assessments are extremely detailed and gather information from many sources over multiple sessions so they're unlikely to miss a diagnosis. However, they're not just diagnostic. They’re an in-depth process through which a child comes to understand themselves more fully so they can feel good about who they are. They're also designed to help parents and teachers understand and support them better.
Most teachers don’t report autism and ADHD behaviours by girls in school/college. Without direct assessment and observation, this can mean that diagnostic criteria is not reached (differences need to be impacting in more than one context) and girls are left undiagnosed and unsupported.
'Autistic Girls' includes school observations (primary school age) and assessments to help us notice subtle diagnostic information and understand what girls need in the education environment. We're more likely to diagnose more accurately. We also share the assessment outcome with school/college and help them make appropriate adjustments. If you want to feel confident in an accurate diagnosis, and for your daughter to be supported at school as well as home, we are the service for you.
If you want an assessment with us, the first step is to book your free screening call with one of the team.