Mrs Speechie P

Mrs Speechie P Hi- My name is Andi Putt and I am a pediatric speech language pathologist, autism evaluation specialist, & disabilities advocate.
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Welcome parents, & professionals!

Does Autism have a look? Sometimes it does- it’s very possible to look at a person and see they are clearly disabled (sl...
01/13/2026

Does Autism have a look?

Sometimes it does- it’s very possible to look at a person and see they are clearly disabled (slide 4). And these tend to be the examples people hold in their minds about what Autism is and what it “looks like”

BUT- that’s not how Autism looks or is experienced by everyone. Many people have very subtle traits and/or mask or hide their differences (slide 2). It’s also super common for people to embrace their authentic selves and be called “quirky” resulting in their needs for support to go dismissed slide 3)! And many people will be a combination of all 3 (one example in this last slide but it could be any combo of traits ❤️)

But the take home message is that Autistic people can be any of these- or a mix of these, and **still be Autistic**

Who wants FREE professional development hours? 🙋🏼‍♀️https://www.bethebrightest.com/?ref=yjywytm ⬆️ register for the SLP...
01/12/2026

Who wants FREE professional development hours? 🙋🏼‍♀️

https://www.bethebrightest.com/?ref=yjywytm ⬆️ register for the SLP Summit where you can get up to 8 pd hours- one of which will be by me!

I present today live at 4 central (DEI hour) and excited to see speak after me today (ethics!)

Lots more going on over the next two days (swipe for the schedule)! And if you can’t watch live, that’s okay too, you can watch replays till the first week of Feb! 🥰

“They’re fine” “Don’t worry” comments are not helpful for children who have delays. (Even ones who do catch up on their ...
01/08/2026

“They’re fine” “Don’t worry” comments are not helpful for children who have delays. (Even ones who do catch up on their own!)

Children shouldn’t have to struggle and push through an inability to communicate without support until they are 3-4 years old. And I’ll just say it… 95% of those “engineers who didn’t speak until they were three” are undiagnosed Autistic. And should never had to have gone 1-2 years of their lives without access to communication.

Autism evaluation waitlists can be long- and the waiting can be stressful for family members. Here are 5 tips for what y...
01/07/2026

Autism evaluation waitlists can be long- and the waiting can be stressful for family members. Here are 5 tips for what you can do while you wait!

Need an evaluation, but don’t want a long wait? Did you know I offer a limited number of Autism evaluations with a licensed psychologist in the Dallas area? We have openings as early as next month and specialize in the “tricky” cases - and second (or third opinions!). DM or email me for more info!

🌟 If you already know your child is not meeting milestones, please scroll on by- this post is not for you. Milestones ar...
01/06/2026

🌟 If you already know your child is not meeting milestones, please scroll on by- this post is not for you. Milestones aren’t a goal, they are just a helpful tool to help us identify who may need support. Once kids are identified as needing support, they should have unique goals specific to them ❤️

Childhood milestones can help adults recognize if/when a child may need additional support like speech therapy. However, a child can *meet/exceed* milestones and need therapy, and a child can miss milestones and not need therapy. Only a full evaluation with a trusted professional can let us know for sure!

So while helpful, milestones are not everything. I do recommend evaluations if anyone thinks one is needed or if a child isn’t meeting milestones - this is because evaluations can really dig deep to see a child’s true strengths and areas of needed support.

For this post- communication is waaaaay more than just number of words and pronunciation, but we use these as a “screener” because it’s fairly easy for parents and teachers to recognize.

Needing and getting therapy support for children continues to be stigmatized, and as a result, many people may become upset while reading this post. If this is you, please know that therapy is a great support for kids. It’s fun, it’s engaging, and it only benefits kids. “Wait and see” is only okay in either short bursts (3 months or less) OR when a person specialized in the specific area, ST/OT/PT, recommends it after an eval. Otherwise kids end up just struggling through when they could have had access to support earlier.

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01/06/2026

❤️❤️

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! ❤️
12/25/2025

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! ❤️

Autism can look very different from one person to the next - however, most people think of it almost exclusively as Jenn...
12/19/2025

Autism can look very different from one person to the next - however, most people think of it almost exclusively as Jennie (socially avoidant), when that’s not true for all or most Autistic people.

In fact, many Autistic kids are *excessively* socially seeking and have high attention needs. Especially from their parents.

While this post is highlighting two extremes of super avoidant to super seeking, most Autistic people are in the middle and also tend to respond to different social situations in a variety of ways (ie seeking with family and close friends or seeking with adults, while avoiding peers or large group social situations or unfamiliar people).

I also want to say that for kids who are socially avoidant, it can look much more than just not responding. Kids can respond to their name, engage with others on request, but still prefer solitude.

12/18/2025

Autism + Presents 🎁

Many Autistic people react differently to opening presents - usually in a calm/understated way, but also can be in a super excited over the top kind of way.

While the over the top is often praised - I do want people to be careful as this *can* be a sign of masking. The focus of this is the understated and accept how people react to gifts. We (Autistic people) are often called - rude and ungrateful for our flat affect and outwardly underwhelming responses. This doesn’t mean that we aren’t grateful and can be due to a variety of reasons-

✅ Differences in understanding and recognizing own emotions
✅ Differences in outwardly expressing emotions via facial expressions, body language, and communication
✅ Desire/need to know what might happen - like for me, I don’t like surprises because my responses to these are almost always underwhelming to others. This can be because what I thought was going to happen didn’t happen or the surprise was so unexpected it threw me off and I need some time to adjust. I’ve also had “surprises” that I already knew about and then people expected me to have a big reaction. This is true for gifts I love and am so thankful for just as much as gifts that I’m not excited about.

📝 Many Autistic people are bad liars (me!) and/or don’t see a reason to lie. This can result in blunt/direct and honest responses to gifts or awkward responses when we try to lie but are clearly lying lol

Bottom line- please don’t add to Autistic people’s stress around holidays by expecting them to have certain reactions. Parents may need to advocate for their kids by explaining in advance to other family members. Holidays are fun- but they can be a lot for ND folk, so be kind.

Happy holidays!

Most people think when Autistic people are diagnosed in late childhood, it means their traits were missed early on. This...
12/17/2025

Most people think when Autistic people are diagnosed in late childhood, it means their traits were missed early on. This is very true for many, but *not* true for all!

This post follows McKenzie as she gets older and highlights the fact that while she always had some Autistic traits, they just weren’t clearly atypical until she was older. She’s loosely based off my son Kam who was diagnosed at 7 (and honestly while I drove his eval, his autism wasn’t super clear to me until he was almost 8, and now that he’s 10 it’s super duper clear (to me, but not everyone).

Be sure to swipe to the last slide to see why this happens!

⭐️ SAVE this post and share with anyone new to the idea of Autism⭐️ New to Autism or my page? My best advice is to forge...
12/15/2025

⭐️ SAVE this post and share with anyone new to the idea of Autism⭐️

New to Autism or my page? My best advice is to forget what you think you know about autism and start fresh! This is because general autism knowledge is limited to stereotypes, and while these stereotypes are true for many, it’s not true for all or most Autistic people.

Want to learn more? My Autism Handbook has allll the info you could want in easy to understand and affirming language! Check it out!

📣 Therapy can be overwhelming for kids and many parents are surprised when I recommend taking a break. If kids aren’t mo...
12/10/2025

📣 Therapy can be overwhelming for kids and many parents are surprised when I recommend taking a break. If kids aren’t motivated, if they aren’t interested, if they *really* don’t want to be there- then why do we force them? And why would we expect them to progress?

What I do as a SLP- I talk to parents about their thoughts, and if they agree, I talk to the kids. Sometimes I even ask them if they want to make a “deal” - we take a break and then when you come back rested, we’ll work extra hard!

Note- this is specific to speech but I think it can carry over to most therapies, however what’s best for most kids won’t be what’s best for all kids! I recommend adults and kids communicating about breaks to come to an agreement that all feel is best *especially including the child* ❤️

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Mrs Speechie P

Mrs Speechie P is a blog designed to share information about speech and language development to parents of children with delays and/or disabilities, Speech Language Pathologists, and Educators. I have a passion for early intervention and parent education/involvement in intervention.