Confused/stressed about pointing (or lack of) in 17 month old

[TabithaTwitchet]

DD is 17 months. I have been reading some stuff and scaring myself thinking she should be pointing by now, and I don't think she is. Or rather she does sometimes, but not sure if is the wrong sort of pointing.

So she will point to parts of her body when I say "where's DD's nose/ear/head/hair etc. Sometimes she will respond correctly to where's mummy's/teddy's nose etc, sometimes she points to her own nose.

If I say things like "where's teddy" she will look round for him then go and get him, she won't point.

If I say, "Oh look, there's teddy!" and point, she will look round for him, but doesn't seem to follow my point.

She doesn't seem to point at things to show them to me, although if she sees something exciting she will look up at me and smile.

Am I being an idiot for worrying about it?

My 15mo points to her body parts and if she sees something she likes then she asks "whats that?"

But If I say where is the cat, she looks around for him instead of pointing.

I think the fact the she can and does point means that everything is fine and 17mo is still inside the 'normal' (hate that description) realms of development.

The extention of the digit is not really the point. Trying to get a child to point is neither here nor there.
The 'pointing' simply means that the child starts to indicate towards things to try and get you to share the thing his/her attention is focussed on.
A child with ASD may well enjoy seeing a fire engine go past. He/she is not likely to care if you saw it too.
An NT child will see a fire engine and want you to see it too - to 'enjoy' it with them IYSWIM. The means by which they will do this before they can say 'ooh look' is to point and look at you to see if you are looking.

THAT is what the pointing issue is about - sharing attention.
A child that does not point may well be getting you to look at things and play with them. The pointing is just the most obvious and consistent method pre speech.

(so stop getting the poor little buggers to point at stuff )