Pointing but not showing, joint attention, 12 months old

[Rainyday33]

Hi everyone,
I would like to hear from your experience. How did your child develope joint attention? My Ds started pointing around 10.5 months. He did it mainly to request but to share aswell. Im little concerned becouse he is not showing toys to me yet and I have read that showing gesture should come before pointing. He also doesnt look back when pointing to share and tends to go back and forth between whole hand point and index finger point. I would really like an opinion from @AladdinMum.

My son is 12 months and doesn't do anything of what you've mentioned, he points but only to my nose cause he wants to poke it 😂

@mumsie01 thanks for the reply. Dont get me wrong, I know pointing is considered early before 12M. Its just this order that is bothering me. Ive read that showing comes before pointing and my Ds never showed me anything.

My son has never showed me anything either, I didn't know it was a thing tbh. Sorry I can't be of more help

@Rainyday33 My first DS was the same and I also thought it was unusual. I had PNA and became very fixated on autism and read extensively on the subject. Anyway pointing was early at 9 months but other gestures all came around a year. He's a totally typical nearly 4 year old now. Try not to worry

Also pairing eye contact with pointing doesn't really happen until later I think. Does he check in with you when playing etc?

Hi @Foreverbaffled, thanks for the reply. My Ds always had great eye contact, and I wasnt really worried about autism untill Ive read that they should be answering their names at 9M and he wasnt. It all started from there, excessive google search which is never good. Probably some PNA aswell. He does check in with me while playing and now he is trying to walk which probably hold back some of development in other areas. Anyway I would like to ask you couple of question, this is my first child so I dont have much experience. When your child started showing you toys did he do it often or not so much? And about babbling. Did he babbled a lot and when he had his first word? Mine started babbling early but he is not much of a babbler and still no meaningful words, or jargoning. Mostly bababa, tatata, mamama.

Hi @Rainyday33 no problem at all. The Google rabbit hole is a dangerous place. There are loads of misleading articles about name response but actually the NHS lists it as a 12 month milestone. DS1 didn’t reliably respond to his name until a year and DS2 is the same. In terms of showing both my boys started infrequently but this became much more frequent over the space of a few months.

Both my boys babbled a lot from 8 months but DS1 didn’t say his first word until 13/14 months. DS2 has no words at a year. This is all very much in the realm of typical. Receptive language and gestures are much more important at this age.

@Foreverbaffled in terms of receptive language I would say he understand more than 10 words/objects, sometimes he will point to the light or a picture on the wall if I ask him to. He claps and just started to wave. I hope thats enough. 🤞🏻He also responds much better to his name now.

@Rainyday33 sounds perfect! If not even a bit advanced with his receptive language. DS2 knows about 5-6 names for words and will turn to look when I ask where they are. It’s inconsistent though. The Ages and Stages Questionnaire for a year only asks for one word to be known! Lovely use of gestures too. I don’t think autism needs to be a concern honestly.

@Foreverbaffled thank you very much for your responses.

Hi @Rainyday33 do you have an update please 🙏🏻