As recently as two years ago, I fought to have a student assessed for autism. None of his other teachers past or present, seemed to notice or be willing to do anything. His parents were recent immigrants from another country that doesn't recognize these cognitive issues and were simply concerned that he wasn't developing normally. They were very grateful when I suggested the possibility of autism.

And his case was severe and obvious. And he's a boy. Girls get left behind even more because they can often mask the symptoms of social deficits by mimicking socially appropriate behaviour.