Overdiagnosed or Overlooked? A Pediatrician on Autism Today
A board-certified pediatrician and mother of a daughter with autism joins Julianna Scott and Kelley Jensen to talk about what actually happens inside the pediatrician's office. Dr. Alisa Minkin explains why standard screening tools miss subtler presentations of autism, how she navigates vaccine hesitancy without losing a family's trust, and why the search for a "magic cure" so often derails real progress.
The conversation moves through some of the thorniest debates in the autism community right now: is autism over-diagnosed or under-diagnosed (the answer is both, depending on who you're talking about), whether profound autism deserves its own diagnostic category, and how to think clearly about medication when so much of it is prescribed off-label. Dr. Minkin also shares her own family's late diagnosis story and what it taught her about denial, timing, and patience.
The episode closes on screen time, why it's so much more reinforcing for autistic kids than neurotypical ones, and how to set boundaries around it without shame.
Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
A Tough Pill to Swallow — a Refrigerator Moms paper on medication for autism, referenced by Dr. Minkin as a resource for parents weighing medication decisions with their child (https://refrigeratormoms.com/a-tough-...)
Kids Matter! — Dr. Minkin's own podcast about raising healthy, happy children, mentioned as a companion listen to this episode
(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...)
🔗 Learn More:
Website: refrigeratormoms.com
Instagram: / refrigeratormoms
LinkedIn: / refrigeratormoms
Facebook: / refrigeratormoms
TikTok: / refrigeratormoms
Refrigerator Moms is sponsored by Brain Performance Technologies, a specialty mental health clinic that offers neuromodulation treatments for mental health conditions including depression, PTSD, OCD, anxiety, ADHD and autism. Our treatments utilize TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) protocols including rTMS, aTMS, and MeRT. All of our treatments are drug-free and noninvasive. Call for insurance options or learn more at https://brainperformancetechnologies.com
00:00 Introducing Dr. Alisa Minkin
01:12 What pediatricians look for at milestones
02:22 How autism screening actually works
03:05 What screening tools miss most
03:19 Developing strong "autism radar"
04:36 Reading whether a parent is ready
06:00 Why parents are more receptive today
06:37 Vaccine hesitancy in autism families
08:20 An uptick in measles cases
09:39 When parents ask about unproven treatments
10:44 Sorting therapies by help versus harm
12:11 Why patience matters more than a cure
14:46 The problem with trying everything at once
17:06 Who can actually diagnose autism
18:19 Over-diagnosis versus under-diagnosis
20:24 Why "everyone's a little autistic" is demeaning
20:41 The case for a profound autism diagnosis
23:18 Access to services and school classifications
24:48 When behavioral needs get kids denied care
26:25 Medication and the ADHD-autism overlap
28:24 The off-label medication problem
29:19 Thoughts on the deprescribing movement
31:37 A hot take on screen time
34:18 Why eye contact still matters
35:41 Using screen time as leverage
37:10 Letting kids sit with discomfort
38:07 Where to find Dr. Minkin