| Type | General developmental and behavioral screening — not autism-specific |
|---|---|
| Age range | Birth to 8 years |
| Format | 10 mostly open-ended questions answered by a parent, about 5 minutes |
| Approach | Elicits and categorizes parental concerns rather than testing milestones |
| Who uses it | Pediatric practices, family medicine, early intervention and home-visiting programs — often as an alternative or complement to the ASQ-3 |
| Author | Frances Page Glascoe; administered through providers, not a self-serve tool |
Why "just asking the parents" is a real method
PEDS exists because of a robust and repeatedly replicated research finding: parents' concerns about their child's development are predictive — not universally, but far more reliably than the "wait and see" reflex assumes. Certain kinds of concern (about language, about how a child relates to others, about behavior) carry substantially more weight than others (about a child's habits or physical size).
The instrument's whole design is to capture concerns in a parent's own words, classify them by predictive value, and translate the result into one of several action paths — from immediate referral for evaluation, through additional screening or watchful monitoring, to targeted reassurance and advice. In other words, it operationalizes the principle this entire site keeps repeating: when a parent is worried about communication or social connection, that worry is data.
The companion: PEDS:DM
Because concerns and milestones answer different questions, PEDS has a milestone-based partner — PEDS:DM (Developmental Milestones) — which asks about specific skills across domains. Many practices use them together: PEDS to surface concerns, PEDS:DM to check skills against age expectations.
The same caveat as the ASQ-3 applies, and matters even more here. PEDS is a broad developmental screen, not an autism screen. It can lead to a referral because you raised the right concern — but a "no concerns" result says nothing about autism specifically, and a parent who hasn't yet learned what early autism looks like may not know there is anything to be concerned about. Autism-specific screening at 18 and 24 months (the M-CHAT-R/F) is a separate, additional step.
Getting the most out of it
Since the questions are open-ended, the quality of what comes back depends on the specificity of what you write. "He doesn't point at things to show me, and doesn't look when I point" gives a clinician something to act on; "he's a bit behind" does not. Bring the notes from the signs-by-age checklist and copy the concrete examples straight in.
Medical disclaimer: Educational information only. PEDS and PEDS:DM are published instruments of their author and publisher; no questionnaire content is reproduced here. This page cannot diagnose your child; consult a qualified clinician.