Is it normal that 14 month old can't point to body parts or to me/DH? What can I do to help?

[eastwestbest]

My son points a lot, either hand or occasionally index finger, to communicate what he wants but he doesn't point to anything in books really or know his body parts - or even point to me or DH. Actually he says mama a lot but I'm not even sure he knows it's me. He has a few words though. But if I say, 'shall we read a book,' he'll swivel his body round and wave his hand and finger in direction of the books...

Should he be able to point at these things at his age? We do a lot of singing about the body and pointing at me etc but he looks either a) completely disinterested or like I'm mad...

Is this normal? Any thoughts on what I can do?

dont think either of mine did that at that age, but ds1 i think started doing it soon after that age. 14 months is quite little still but he will probably start doing more of this soon, if you say books and he turns to look at the books you know his understanding is ok?

Watching as have same thing here. 13mo DS doesn't point though, and doesn't understand when anyone else points (just looks at your finger). However you can ask him to fetch/do/ stuff e.g 'look at the bird in the sky' and he does with no problem.

I am hoping it is normal!

Sounds perfectly normal to me. My DD at 15 months has just learned what ears are and will touch them. Definitely doesn't always know what she's pointing at.

Yeah, I think his understanding is fine. He imitates, he copies, he does stuff. He just doesn't seem to get body parts (or know that I'm definitely mama )

Gosh my 13mo is way off this too. He points at things he wants or dogs / cats etc but if I said point at the cat he'd be

I'm not worried though. It still seems quite young to me to be pointing at feet etx

kids that age point at stuff they are interested in and to get what they want.

what is in it for him to point at parts of the body?

14 months is way too young for this. Don't stress!

kids that age point at stuff they are interested in and to get what they want.

Hahaha! LOL! That's very true Sarky . Maybe I'll attach one of his favourite snacks to his ankle and make him work for it...

We've only just started this at 15 months... and we still only have one animal noise (woof woof) for all animals. They'll get there!

my dt1 started this at 15 months, her brother is just getting it now at 16.5 mo. neither reliably know mama, but they can point to each other and ds1. so I'd say 14mo is a bit early.

its perfectly normal i took ds to hv for a similar issue and she said they dont start the recognising and understanding of body parts till there nearly two, and not to worry. your little one will catch on soon enough.

my grandson is nearly 14 months,if you say give this to mamma etc he will,but he doesnt point at anything and,doesnt know his body parts,apart from if you say where are your shoes he will look at his feet.I think its still a bit young to know all that just yet.

My 17mo knows where only one body part is if you ask him - his willy . He can be relied on to look there if you ask him where anything else is. "Where's your nose?" looks down, "where's your head?" looks down, "where's your fingers?" looks down...

Pascha I could only see the first few words of that on Threads I'm On but I knew which body part it would be that he would be able to identify!

OP I think I got DS a book at around this age or a few months older which had different body parts in it and DS loved it, he started off just saying "Toes" for feet and by a few weeks he could name most of them. I hadn't meant it as a drilling exercise, I just liked the pictures(!) - he's 3 now and still can't reliably remember the difference between more obscure parts like shoulder, wrist, elbow and ankle, though.

I agree that they're just all different. At about 13 months my DS could point at head, hands, feet, toes, fingers, legs, arms, tummy, tounge, eyes, ears etc, and would point at things in books when I asked him to.

However, now at 17 months he still makes this face if I say "what noise does a cow make" - he's never shown any interest at all in making animal noises!

Aww, try not to worry. My friends 17 month old signs AND says everything , whilst my own 18 month old still moos for a cat and dog and cow and woofs for a duck...

My own DS does point to his body parts but thats only been in the last month or so. My friends DS could probably tell you where his kidneys are and what they do

I was curious the other day whether my almost 14mo old dd could do any of the body parts - she hadn't got a clue !! Well possibly ears, she tugged them a few times when we said 'ear's'.

She points at anything and everything whether she wants it (or not some of time) but think it all hit and miss at this stage.. oh and she'll also woof or roar at pretty much any animal picture whatever it is, depending on her mood.

I'm trying to adopt approach of never comparing and certainly never over worrying.

My 16mo sounds very similar - only knows his belly. Can see him learning new things day by day though so I'm not worried.