# Ep8 | What Is Autism? A Kid-Friendly Chat with Jill Calkins for Autism Acceptance Month

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-s-happening-inside-me-7235354/ep8-what-is-autism-a-kid-friendly-chat-with-jill-calkins-for-autism-acceptance-month
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-s-happening-inside-me-7235354/ep8-what-is-autism-a-kid-friendly-chat-with-jill-calkins-for-autism-acceptance-month.md
Podcast: [What’s Happening Inside Me?](https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-s-happening-inside-me-7235354)
Published: 2025-04-18T04:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/ep8-what-is-autism-a-kid-friendly-chat-with-jill-calkins-for-autism-acceptance-month--65912653
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/65912653/s1e8_autism_sep25.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/what-s-happening-inside-me-7235354/episodes/ep8-what-is-autism-a-kid-friendly-chat-with-jill-calkins-for-autism-acceptance-month
Duration seconds: 1786

## Resource

🎙️ NEW EPISODE: Autism Acceptance Month Special — Meet Our First Guest! In this special episode of What's Happening Inside Me?, we're celebrating Autism Acceptance Month with our very first guest interview ! Join us as we chat with Jill Calkins , a first-grade teacher and proud mom of an autistic son, who helps us understand what autism is and how we can be great friends to people whose brains work a little differently .Perfect for kids ages 4–12 (and their grown-ups!), this episode explores: What autism means in a kid-friendly way How to be kind, inclusive, and curious Real questions from real kids—answered! If you're a parent, teacher, school nurse, or caregiver looking for resources to talk to children about autism, this episode is a great place to start.👂 Tune in and learn how curiosity and kindness can help us build a more accepting world—one question at a time! 💙 Be sure to like, follow, and subscribe so you never miss an episode—and if you loved this one, share it with a friend or family member who has an autistic child or knows someone who does (which is probably just about everyone!). The more we share, the more kindness we spread. Jill Calkins, a married mother of two, resides in Upper St. Clair, PA. For the past fifteen years, Jill has been a first-grade teacher in the South Hills of Pittsburgh. Before her teaching career, Jill worked at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in various roles including researcher, therapist, and case manager. Jill's 8-year-old son, Benny, is autistic, and Jill serves on the board of the Autism Caring Center, a local organization focused on enhancing the lives of autistic individuals and their families. She is dedicated to fostering a kinder, more inclusive, and more accepting world for autistic people. 💡 Enjoying What’…

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/what-s-happening-inside-me-7235354/episodes/ep8-what-is-autism-a-kid-friendly-chat-with-jill-calkins-for-autism-acceptance-month/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/what-s-happening-inside-me-7235354/ep8-what-is-autism-a-kid-friendly-chat-with-jill-calkins-for-autism-acceptance-month.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.