My 17mo can't identify herself. Just curious - is this usual?

[Aranea]

My 17mo dd2 will happily point out other members of the family when asked, but is completely baffled when asked where she is. She usually points at me. Sometimes at a doll.

I'm interested - is this a normal stage? Any stories?

g only started at 20 months just play pointing games and naming her she will get it .

I suppose I'm just interested because I wonder whether it means she hasn't developed a sense of self yet. She is so confident pointing everybody else out, but looks so baffled when you ask, 'where is dd2?'.

It takes a while to get this, try putting something like lipstick on her face and get her to look in the mirror. If she tries to wipe it off she has an understanding of who she is.

try her with photos of you all and of herself

she points at you because you spend all your time saying her name

I watched a child psychology programme a while back with Robert Winston and they did an experiment to prove that the absolute youngest a child has a 'sense of self' and can therefore recognise themselves is from 20 months so to not be doing so at 17 is very normal!

I'd say my DD was almost 2 before she could confidently and consistently identify herself.

A few weeks later she was able to answer the question, 'what's your name?', the first few times I asked her she replied 'name' which I thought was so sweet

I would say it's pretty normal IMO

Oh that's interesting boredwithfoodprob. She definitely recognises herself in the mirror, as she gets very excited about necklaces and hairclips! So I suppose it feels a bit inconsistent not to be able to identify herself in a different context iyswim.

I think it's fascinating.