Neurodiversity and Gender Constancy in Childhood | Katie Alcock
Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine
12,759 views
Talk: Neurodiversity and Gender Constancy in Childhood
Conference: SEGM Berlin Conference 2025
Speaker: Katie Alcock, PhD
The views, opinions and beliefs expressed within the video presentation are solely those of the presenter and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions and beliefs of the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine.
How do children come to understand sex, gender, appearance, and reality?
Katie Alcock discusses neurodiversity and gender constancy in childhood, with a focus on autistic children and young people. Alcock also presents preliminary research findings comparing autistic children and young people with typically developing peers, and discusses why more research is needed before drawing firm conclusions.
The talk explores developmental concepts including:
Gender stability: understanding whether sex changes over time
Gender consistency: understanding whether sex changes with clothing, roles, or preferences
Appearance-reality reasoning: understanding that something can look one way while being another
Mentalizing, systemizing, and black-and-white thinking
Why developmental context matters in clinical assessment
About the Speaker:
Dr. Katie Alcock is a British psychologist and Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Lancaster University. Her research centers extensively on language and cognitive development across typical and neurodiverse populations. She also investigates how culture, health, and schooling shape development internationally, and explores early childhood thinking regarding biological traits and sex stereotyping.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:25 Autism, mental health, and gender dysphoria
01:56 Mentalizing, empathy, and systemizing
04.46 Appearance-reality reasoning
07:28 Sex and gender constancy
08:59 Gender stability and gender consistency
10:46 Study 1: autistic teenagers and younger children
11:30 Findings on consistency, stability, and appearance-reality
14:25 Study 2: older children, adults, and subtle reasoning tasks
18:26 Preliminary results
22:17 Discussion and next research questions
© 2025 Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine. All rights reserved. This recording and the materials therein may not be used, reproduced, distributed, performed, displayed, or modified in any manner in whole or in part without express written consent of SEGM.
Neurodiversity and Gender Constancy in Childhood | Katie Alcock
Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine
12,759 views
Talk: Neurodiversity and Gender Constancy in Childhood
Conference: SEGM Berlin Conference 2025
Speaker: Katie Alcock, PhD
The views, opinions and beliefs expressed within the video presentation are solely those of the presenter and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions and beliefs of the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine.
How do children come to understand sex, gender, appearance, and reality?
Katie Alcock discusses neurodiversity and gender constancy in childhood, with a focus on autistic children and young people. Alcock also presents preliminary research findings comparing autistic children and young people with typically developing peers, and discusses why more research is needed before drawing firm conclusions.
The talk explores developmental concepts including:
Gender stability: understanding whether sex changes over time
Gender consistency: understanding whether sex changes with clothing, roles, or preferences
Appearance-reality reasoning: understanding that something can look one way while being another
Mentalizing, systemizing, and black-and-white thinking
Why developmental context matters in clinical assessment
About the Speaker:
Dr. Katie Alcock is a British psychologist and Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Lancaster University. Her research centers extensively on language and cognitive development across typical and neurodiverse populations. She also investigates how culture, health, and schooling shape development internationally, and explores early childhood thinking regarding biological traits and sex stereotyping.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:25 Autism, mental health, and gender dysphoria
01:56 Mentalizing, empathy, and systemizing
04.46 Appearance-reality reasoning
07:28 Sex and gender constancy
08:59 Gender stability and gender consistency
10:46 Study 1: autistic teenagers and younger children
11:30 Findings on consistency, stability, and appearance-reality
14:25 Study 2: older children, adults, and subtle reasoning tasks
18:26 Preliminary results
22:17 Discussion and next research questions
© 2025 Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine. All rights reserved. This recording and the materials therein may not be used, reproduced, distributed, performed, displayed, or modified in any manner in whole or in part without express written consent of SEGM.