pointing

[chachacha]

my dd is two. She has good language - makes longish sentences like " I don't want this anymore" (refers to my cooking .)
She has pretend play and likes playing with other children.
But I have read all about the importance of pointing and I am now very worried . She does point and has pointed a lot in the past for food and has also pointed to show me things -birds, fimbles on telly,etc. But I am worried she does not do shared pointing enough - not sure if there is some sort of magic number, I doubt it, but all the past posts/ things I have read seem to indicate a nation of twoyearolds pointing at everything in sight. We went to the zoo and dd was not having a good time - it was snowing and very cold and she did not point to anything at aLL.(Spent all her time moaning about the snow in her eyes and cold hands - then proceeded to take off gloves and would not wear them) Prob wouldn't have even given this a second thought before reading about pointing. Find myself asking dd to point at everything - provoking a " I don't want to point Mummy " and " I can't do it".
Seriously think I am losing the plot about this. - poor dd I am not enjoying her just waiting for the next point . Actually counted points yesterday - how sad is that? . Then noticed that she had not extended finger fully for one of them - more panic. Think I will check myself into funny farm.....

my 5yr old cant follow a point.

chacha if she is pointing to show you things, that is "shared interest pointing".

More importantly at this stage, she is communicating with you using speech and language.

I really don't think you have anything to worry about .

It sounds as though she is doing well. She's using pointing to let you know what she wants and also to show you things. I'm guessing that as her language has improved she's been able to tell you verbally what she wants rather than relying on pointing alone.

To give you some comparison, my ds1 (autistic) didn't really start to point at things at all until 2.5 - 3yrs old. Even then he was only pointing for his own benefit and not to show me what he wanted or to show something he found interesting. Ds2 (also autistic) had to be physically taught how to point and even now, at almost 3yrs old, he still gets mixed up a lot of the time.

I guess I just worry that she does not do it enough- now that I have started to notice days can go by without a shared point but you are right dinosaurinamanger she is communicating with speach and language.
Misdee - - is there a reason he/she can't follow a point or is this perfectly normal? Sorry to sound so ignorant

Generally pointing is used to communicate before children use to speak. so often children will point rather than speak because it is easier and achieves the same results. Try not to worry, if she communicates and her development is the same in all other aspects, then you have nothing to worry about. My DS never learned to point at the things he wanted. I am totally blind and therefore would not be able to see if he was pointing to something, he therefore learned to communicate verbally to tell me what he wanted, because pointing to it would have been pointless, (excuse the pun).

She can talk to share interest why should she point? Many 2 year olds can't talk - or not very well- so it's easier to point. Please be sensible - I know autism is the new fear for everone, but really an autistic child can't communicate, doesn't have much joint attention (or struggles with it). They wouldn't be arguing about wearing their gloves (they'd be screaming and biting you if you tried to put them on).

why cant dd1 follow a point at 5? no idea. she can pointto things of interest, but if i point to show her something she looks in the opposite direction. its very annoying at times if its something she needs to see quickly, i haveto move her head to the right place and place my finger to the side of her head so she can see where i am pointing to.