16mo won't follow simple instructions

[Kat4257]

Hi, I'm just wondering if this is normal.

My little girl won't follow simple instructions like “bring the ball”, “find your shoes”, “show me your nose”, “point to the cat” etc (in either language). I’m not sure if it’s because my daughter is bilingual but she doesn’t seem to do anything I ask her to and only says 4 words (mama, dada, up, water - all in Russian)

I've read about 16 gestures by 16mo and she waves but not as "goodbye", just randomly. Sometimes it'll be as she's walking away from me into another room, but sometimes just when we are walking down the street even if there are no passers by. She doesn't nod or shake her head for yes / no. She claps, points, reaches for items, taps items she wants, blows kisses, reaches for a kiss, hides / plays peekaboo, does an "idk" gesture when she loses a toy, feeds herself with a spoon, tries to wash her own hair when taking a bath. She can't do the "shh" gesture. So not really sure if she's hitting the 16 gestures milestone.

[Snorkello]

Sounds like she’s hitting loads of milestones, so I wouldn’t be too concerned, but you can ask your hv or doctor. She’s bilingual so that’s big. She’s busy learning two languages and does tons of other stuff. Waving is just one example and if it doesn’t start by 2, that’s when I’d be looking at other milestones. Comparison is the thief of joy! Enjoy the kisses she blows x

[ItalianMUM89]

Hello!
Can I ask you how your girl is progressing?
I have a similar situation and my son is about the same age as yours (just turned 18m yesterday).
He is exposed to 4 languages regularly (3 languages at nursery every day) and a fourth at home.
I have noticed that he can understand many single words (around 150) and also can say some his own (many animal sounds, car sounds, mama, dada, baby, biscuit and some other nouns..in toral ca 25 words he uses consistently) but he is very inconsistent in following instructions like where is X or bring me X. He can do it and will sometimes also do it (maybe 40%?) but other times he will just ingore me as if he has not understood.
Especially he will mostly struggle to show me something in a book if i ask him "where is x?"(even animals he knows and labels spontaneusly). It is not that he never did it but he is extremely inconsistent (struggles?) with this kind of instructions.
Most milsetones are ment for monolingual children so i think it would be nice to have a confrontation with you about our kids whit a similar agea and exposed to more languages.

[SiouxsieSiouxStiletto]

@ItalianMUM89 you might need to try an @ to get the OP to see your message

[ItalianMUM89]

Thank you! I will write my son's progression in case @Kat4257 or other people in the future will read it.
In less than a month i see a lot of progresses with my son. He is now at the beginning of language explosion i think (every day some new words and also some verbs, copying words but not 2 words sentences by now) and become much more consistent with following instructions and with picture recognition. I hope this give some reassurances to parents of multilinguals that they might seem a bit slower at the beginning but eventually catch up!