Pointing Questions / Concerns

[TheWonkyFrog]

My 23.5mo is concerning me and I will be raising it with the HV during his 2 year review booked for a few weeks time.

M-CHAT score is 4.

But looking for thought and input here…

He is in Nursery full time, and at 18mo they contacted us saying there was some regression. He wasn’t saying any words at this point but was babbling which all but stopped.

At the same time we discovered he was holding in his poo. Screaming both in anticipation and during. Crossing legs. Loss of eye contact. There was no regression around mobility.

The GP referred us to SALT (on a waiting list) and prescribed MOVICOL.

Over the past 4 months the MOVICOL has done its job, and he is pooing freely again. :)

In the last month the babbling has returned, and over the last month we have gone from 0 words to 10.

He responds to his name 50% of the time. Has good imaginative play, but no pointing!

If I’m eating a biscuit, he will put his hand out, and sad “daa daa daa” to indicate he wants it!

But there is clearly speech delay and reading online pointing is so important.

Could regression cause a delay in pointing?

Is it normal to have some words but no pointing?

Does he point if you ask him to? Or not at all?

I don't think lack of pointing in itself is a concern if he is using other methods/gestures to let you know what he wants. I think the concern around lack of pointing is that it denotes a lack of understanding/interest in communicating. If he has just found other ways to convey the same information that a point would I think it's not a huge problem.

If we are in a car park, he will point at a car, and say “car”.

I have seen him do this 4 times over the past week.

But other than that, no. No pointing.

As noted above if I’m eating a biscuit, he will put his hand out, and sad “daa daa daa” to indicate he wants it though.

It seems like he can point and he can indicate he wants something, he's maybe just not that keen on pointing!

If you made it into a game like 'can you point at the TV' and then cheer/clap when he does, would he do that?

Are you doing lots of pointing to show him? And if you do point does he look where you're pointing i.e. does he understand what a point is?

If I point he will generally look where I’m pointing.

I wasn’t aware of the importance of pointing until now. But will be trying to make a game out of it now .

He will sometimes clap, and waves (saying da da) when opening/closing doors.

@TheWonkyFrog
Hiya, how are you getting on now?

We also stopped using words, followed by silence and have gone to babbling now. I've heard 1 words used in context over 2 weeks.

Hello! Sorry to hear this.

Speech wise he is flying. More and more 3-4 sentences by the day week: “More custard biscuit please?”, “Bye bye brush”, “Big yellow digger”, “No! My little monkey”.

There is also loads of hand gesturing.

However his eye contact has gotten worse. When he is talking he will look you directly in the eye, but when we are talking/interacting he will often avoid eye contact.

And still on the Movicol as he is withholding his poo.

So certainly something. Next checkin with the Doctors when he is 2.7.

Thank you so much for replying!

I'm so glad his speech has come on so well! It's always worrying when tou start seeing changes and differences, isn't it.

I'm sure we will all see positive changes soon :)
My LG has stopped pointing and communicating her needs, which is a bigger concern for me.

Fingers crossed.

I recommend writing things down and keeping a dairy. The days easily blur into months.

Hopefully your LG starts talking your ears off soon.