16 month old not pointing

[Ppan12]

Hi,

Posting this under a different topic due to lack of response in previous one.

Sorry for the long post in advance.

I've had concerns about my 15, almost 16 month old DS s social and communication skillls.

He can walk short distances without support and long distances by holding a hand. And his fine and gross motor skills along with problem solving are age appropriate.

But he only extends his whole hand when he wants something. He doesn't point and his eye contact is fleeting although it's getting better with time.

Other things he can do -

• Can say milk, water and food and asks for it when hungry or thirsty.

• Can say mama, daddy, nana (grandparents), baba (when he wants to go out), yay (when excited), oh no (only repeats it when he hears someone say it).

• Brings toys to me and others that he wants to play with and loves to play ball with everyone.

• Is comfortable around other people and children (even new people on most occasions) and sometimes walks up to and pats them to get their attention.

• Looks to me when he wants me to sing his favourite part of a song playing on TV

• Pretends to feed his toy animals and feeds us food when asked.

• Claps when excited and looks at us when he wants us to clap along with him, puts his hand to his ear when someone answers their phone or says hello.

I am not sure if all this is NT and age appropriate.

Does lack of finger pointing at this age indicate risk of ASD or speech delay?

Thank you to anyone who takes time and effort to respond.

@Ppan12

sounds very very similar to my almost 16mo DS
mine has a long list of positives like your DS with the sharing things with me , bringing random things over to show me I.e a sock he’s found or a piece of paper and also toys etc
my DS has good social referencing and eye contact also BUT he does lack pointing , he’s pointed to things in books and body parts from about 13 months . Only in this 15 month he’s started to index finger point at other things like his ball , occasionally something on the tv , to my lit candles and says HOT HOT , to his colourful caterpillar and try’s to say green while pointing at it and that’s really as far as it goes with him he has never pointed to request anything yet , like your DS if he wants something he just says it like nana ( banana) , bot bot , and if I pass him something that he doesn’t want he will shake his head no , I can’t work out if I’m worried or not but personally I think he communicates fine.

It's just that all the development checklists make such a big deal about lack of pointing that it sort of eclipses all the other skills they achieve. Thanks for replying and sharing what your little one does. It gives me hope that maybe it's just a normal delay and that they will eventually start pointing soon xx

It's just that all the development checklists make such a big deal about lack of pointing that it sort of eclipses all the other skills they achieve. Thanks for replying and sharing what your little one does. It gives me hope that maybe it's just a normal delay and that they will eventually start pointing soon xx

@Ppan12

yeah your right it does seem to eclipse all the other skills , even though my DS does point to some degree it still seem like it’s not enough because of how much attention lack of pointing gets if that makes sense , but I did read that pointing is not considered late until 18 months both to request and share interests x

Hi OP how is yout little? I am having the same concern.. Hope to hear back from you