The Follow-Up: Understanding Autism Characteristics

The PedsDocTalk Podcast: Child Health, Development & Parenting—From a Pediatrician Mom

Dr. Mona Amin

Medicine, Kids & Family, Health & Fitness, Parenting

4.9 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As a pediatrician, I know how stressful it can feel when you’re filling out those developmental questionnaires at your child’s checkup. You check a few “no” boxes, and suddenly you’re spiraling! What does this mean? Should I be worried? In this episode, I sit down with an autism specialist to talk through what some of those screening questions actually mean and how they’re meant to be interpreted. We look at common items from the M-CHAT like pointing, pretend play, and responding to their name and unpack why these aren’t simple yes-or-no milestones. We talk about what’s typical, what might be worth keeping an eye on, and how to bring up your concerns in a productive way with your child’s doctor. Most importantly, we discuss why one missed skill doesn’t equal a diagnosis, and how to focus on the whole picture of your child’s development. We discuss: Why the M-CHAT can sometimes create more confusion than clarity What “joint attention” looks like in real life (and why it matters) Why pretend play is about creativity, not just copying What finger posturing means—and why it’s often a self-soothing behavior When to worry about your child not responding to their name How delayed babbling fits into speech and language development How to ask your child’s clinician the right follow-up questions when you’re worried Want more? Listen to the original, full episode. Our podcasts are also now on YouTube. If you prefer a video podcast with closed captioning, check us out there and ⁠subscribe to PedsDocTalk⁠. Get trusted pediatric advice, relatable parenting insights, and evidence-based tips delivered straight to your inbox—join thousands of parents who rely on the PDT newsletter to stay informed, supported, and confident. ⁠⁠⁠⁠Join the newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠! And don’t forget to follow ⁠⁠⁠⁠@pedsdoctalkpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠ on Instagram—our new space just for parents looking for real talk and real support. We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on the ⁠PedsDocTalk Podcast Sponsorships⁠ page of the website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, it's Dr. Mona and welcome back to the follow-up.
0:05.4	This is a series on the Pete's Doc Talk podcast where we revisit a past favorite episode.
0:11.3	And I bring these episodes back for a few reasons.
0:14.4	Sometimes because they were community favorites, sometimes because something's come up that I want to revisit,
0:20.4	and sometimes because you ask for more.
0:22.7	This one checks all those boxes.
0:25.1	There has been a lot of confusion and stigma and misinformation floating around about autism lately.
0:31.8	And I wanted to bring this conversation back to clear things up.
0:35.5	My guest is a favorite, Andy Putt, also known as
0:38.6	Mrs. Speechy P on Instagram. She's a pediatric speech-language pathologist who conducts
0:44.1	autism evaluations and is a strong neurodiversity advocate. In this conversation, we talk about
0:50.0	the differences between identity first and person- first language, outdated terms that we should
0:54.4	leave behind the biggest misconceptions about autism that are still out there and what your clinician
0:59.2	is actually looking for during screenings. It's insightful, it's practical, and full of compassion,
1:04.2	something that I love to do on my own, and when I can have guests do the same thing, it's a win-win.
1:09.1	And remember, if you want to listen to the full
1:10.9	episode, check out the link in our show notes. And before we jump in, don't forget, download
1:16.2	and subscribe. That's what helps the show grow and keeps these important conversations going.
1:21.2	Let's get into it.
1:26.2	Well, I would like to talk about the questions on the M-chat only because I think so many of my listeners have filled this out.
1:33.3	And I do think we have a little bit of time. And I think by doing this, we're going to be able to kind of also talk, well, if this characteristic or this thing that they're talking about, what are your thoughts as someone who is very specialized
1:44.3	in this? What are your thoughts about that? So I have 20 questions and we'll go through. I'll jump around if we need to. I'm going to not do all of them. I'm just going to do some of them. So the first one was if you point at something across the room, does your child look at it? And it's a yes or no question. Right, which is a major problem in and of itself.
	...

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