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Worried? Start here.
If something about your child’s development is worrying you, you do not need a doctor’s permission to act. There is a free 10-minute screening you can take tonight and a free phone call you can make tomorrow, no referral and no diagnosis required. This page walks you through both.
A worry is enough
You do not need to match your child against a checklist before you act. If your gut says something is off, that is reason enough to screen. Screening is free, it takes minutes, and the worst case is reassurance. The pediatric guidelines back you up here: screening for autism is a routine, recommended part of well-child care, not an alarm bell.
The CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that all children be screened for autism at their 18-month and 24-month well-child visits, whether or not anyone is worried.
VerifiedSource: CDC and AAP developmental screening guidance · How we verify
The screening you can take tonight
The M-CHAT is the standard first step. It does not diagnose anything. It tells you whether your child should see a professional for a full evaluation, which is exactly the question you are trying to answer.
The M-CHAT is a free, official 20-question screening for toddlers 16 to 30 months old. It takes about 10 minutes and you can do it at home.
VerifiedSource: mchatscreen.com (the official M-CHAT site) · How we verify
Our full walkthrough of the M-CHAT, what your score means, and the exact next step lives at the M-CHAT explainer.
The one urgent sign
Talking late and losing words are different things. A child who never said many words may simply be a late talker. A child who had words and stopped using them is the case the guidance treats as urgent, and it deserves a call this week, not a wait until the next checkup.
Losing words a child already had (regression) is treated as an urgent sign in CDC and AAP guidance, and it is different from talking late.
VerifiedSource: CDC and AAP developmental screening guidance · How we verify
The free call, by age
Under 3: call Early Steps yourself
Early Steps is Florida’s free early intervention program for children under 36 months. Call 1-800-218-0001(statewide) and say you want to refer your own child. No doctor’s referral, no diagnosis, and the evaluation is free.
VerifiedSource: Florida Early Steps (floridaearlysteps.com) · How we verify
3 and up: the school district owes you an evaluation
Under IDEA’s Child Find duty, every school district must identify and evaluate children who may have a disability. A parent can start this by asking for an evaluation in writing, and under the federal rule the evaluation must be completed within 60 days after the parent gives consent.
VerifiedSource: Parent Center Hub (federally funded parent information network), IDEA regulations · How we verify
If the pediatrician says wait and see
You can hear that advice and still act. In Florida the self-referral right means the free evaluation does not depend on the pediatrician agreeing with you, and the time before age 3 is when early help matters most. We wrote a script for that exact appointment: the wait-and-see pushback card.
How long a full evaluation takes
The full diagnostic evaluation is a separate, longer road than the screening, and the private waitlists are real. Faster doors exist, including the free public tracks above, which you can start while you wait.
Provider quotes collected in July 2026 ranged from 6 to 10 months in Tampa up to 10 to 14 months in Miami for a private autism evaluation. This is not official data; we recheck it quarterly.
VerifiedSource: SpectrumBeacon provider survey, July 2026 · Verified by founder-collected provider quotes, four Florida metros · How we verify