Why more boys tend to have autistic tendencies than girls?

Eighty percent (80%) of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders are boys. This startling fact is based on several factors that have to do with the development of the brain in children.

For reasons not completely understood, boys are more susceptible to environmental toxins as fetuses, and as young children. During the first two years of life, the right hemisphere develops more than the left hemisphere. Boys typically rely more on the right hemisphere of their brain as children, and also tend to have a larger right hemisphere when very young. Because of this, and the fact that the right hemisphere develops first in young children, any stress or insults (environmental, physical, nutritional, etc.) during the first two years of a child’s life will have a greater impact on boys than girls. This includes events such as a lack of physical movement when children are very young, for example crawling, sitting up, and rolling over as babies.