{"pk":38424,"title":"Being Heard: Communication Difficulties in Co-morbid Autism Spectrum Disorder and Gender Dysphoria","subtitle":null,"abstract":"<p>It has been well-established that Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Gender Dysphoria (GD)<br>are frequently Co-morbid. There have been treatments designed to ameliorate the two conditions<br>and how they interact, but they are not as comprehensive as they could be. These treatments<br>mainly deal with addressing the executive functioning difficulties exasperated by ASD to help<br>these patients take the steps necessary to begin or continue the transition process. In order to<br>transition, transgender youth must be able to understand and communicate abstract concepts like<br>their own gender identity to the gatekeepers of their gender-affirming treatment which can be<br>especially challenging to patients with ASD-related alexithymia. Once they do transition they are<br>also met with adapting to an entirely new set of social rules and expectations. Having ASD is an<br>often isolating experience and being transgender only adds to that challenge. Social skills<br>training through treatments like the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational<br>Skills (PEERS) could help them improve their communication skills and navigate life as their<br>affirmed gender.</p>","language":"eng","license":{"name":"Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial  4.0","short_name":"CC BY-NC 4.0","text":"Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.\n\nNonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.\n\nNo additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0"},"keywords":[{"word":"alexithymia"},{"word":"gender incongruence"},{"word":"Gender Dysphoria"},{"word":"autism spectrum disorder"},{"word":"Autism"},{"word":"transgender"},{"word":"co-morbid"},{"word":"assigned gender at birth"},{"word":"affirmed gender"}],"section":"Article","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3nc5p3pf","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Margot","middle_name":"J.","last_name":"Delery","name_suffix":"","institution":"","department":""}],"date_submitted":"2024-10-24T22:55:02.300000Z","date_accepted":"2025-09-28T05:07:42.460000Z","date_published":"2026-05-05T16:15:00Z","render_galley":{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/urjpucla/article/38424/galley/49868/download/"},"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/urjpucla/article/38424/galley/49868/download/"}]}