Ep. 91 What Are Signs of Autism in Toddlers?
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What is the purpose of this episode and who are the hosts?
What's up everyone and welcome to Making the Shift for Autistic Kids. We're an SLP couple from California with four boys. And we're here every week to bring you neuroaffirming tips, tricks, and tools. Are you ready to make the shift? Let's do this!
Hello world and welcome to Making the Shift. Today we are talking about the earliest signs or characteristics of autism that you might see in children. Now, this is coming from years of experience owning a clinic. Many of you know I'm a speech language pathologist. We see several hundred kids a week in our clinic. And we are oftentimes the very first professional to bring up autism to families. We are very we are often the very first professionals to notice these characteristics and refer kids out for an evaluation. That's a huge part of what we do and we're working with the birth to three population specifically because parents are we're usually the first professionals that they're seeing. Because one of the first things that we might see in autistic kids is a speech delay or late talking or differences in communication, but we're gonna talk all about that today.
So today what we're gonna do is I'm going to walk you through some of the most common characteristics that we might see. We're gonna talk through different categories. So we're gonna talk about some of the most common communication differences, social emotional differences. Sensory differences and play differences. So those are the four that we are going to talk through today. Okay, so first and foremost, I will say If this is not something you have heard, but we do not use the term autism red flags, and I know a lot of people still do, but this is a case for why we should not use it anymore. Okay, the the phrase red flags implies that there is something wrong with a child. If we are looking from a look at a child from a neurodiversity affirming lens, meaning
you know, we are embracing their brain differences as opposed to trying to fix their brain differences, then that is going to shift the conversation that we have with parents. When we come to parents and we're like these are red flags, that means bad. We need to do something about this. This is not right. When in reality we know that neurodiversity or being neurodivergent is differences in how the brain is processing. And to me, I get excited when I get to share with parents characteristics I see. I'm excited because now we know how their brain works. Now we know how we can help them learn. Now we know how we can support them. And of course, lots of feelings come with a diagnosis and that can take time for families, but I will say that, you know, if you are
as a therapist thinking about it from that lens that I am doing this family a I'm helping this family. I'm supporting this family by getting them this information sooner, then I think it makes the conversation easier. And we do have a past episode. on having an autism conversation with parents if that is something that you want and need that you can look back on. Okay, so one thing I want to say before we dive in is that not all autistic kids have the same characteristics, right? We have kids who might look very different, who might have very different characteristics. So disclaimer that everything I'm saying today doesn't necessarily apply to every single autistic child. Hence why there are so many misdiagnoses, because a lot of people or people who are evaluators will try to put kids in a certain box and say
Oh well y uh this kid hugs their mom, so they can't be autistic.
Why do the hosts avoid using the term “red flags” for autism?
This kid makes eye contact. They can't be autistic, right? But those stereotypes and those generalizations really hurt us because it prevents kids from getting a diagnosis they need. And then we have people coming out even as adults saying, I was definitely autistic, but no one knew because they didn't know what to look for. Okay. So these are just different characteristics kids might have. few of them, they might have all of them, right? Could be very, very different. Okay. And I do want to say that today I'm not focusing on what is considered the diagnostic criteria.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the purpose of this episode and who are the hosts?
0:08–4:00
2
Why do the hosts avoid using the term “red flags” for autism?
4:00–7:45
3
What early communication differences should parents look for in toddlers?
7:45–18:15
4
How do social‑emotional differences appear in autistic toddlers?
18:15–22:56
5
What sensory preferences and sensitivities are common in autistic children?
22:56–26:40
6
How do play patterns and interests differ for autistic toddlers?
26:40–28:17
7
What free checklist and resources are offered to listeners?
28:17–29:41
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The NeuroAffirm Podcast
Ep. 125 How to Run Successful Social Groups
Ep. 124 Building Rapport Isn’t Enough...How Therapists Become Part of the Intervention
Ep. 123 Not Seeing Progress in Speech Therapy? Start Here.
Ep. 122 Screen Time Considerations for Autistic Kids
Ep. 121 The Biggest Sensory Mistakes SLPs Make
Ep. 120 Why Anxiety is So Common in Autism (And What Actually Helps)