Autistic cognitive presentation in later-life

Abstract

Autistic people grow older; however, little is known about how autistic cognitive differences change over later-life. Additionally, recent estimates indicate that many autistic older people remain undiagnosed. How then do clinical (neuro) psychologists understand the cognitive presentation of autistic people when they present to our services? This paper attempts to answer this question by briefly reviewing four pertinent studies in the literature. It discusses findings indicating that autistic cognitive differences remain into later life, that these cognitive differences do not change differentially compared to neurotypical people during aging. Finally, it notes practical suggestions from the literature of how to make cognitive assessments more sensitive to changes in cognition shown by older autistic people, and highlights the work FPOP intend to do in this area.