pointing and autism

[jussi]

Just wondering how many of your DC pointed as babies/toddlers and then went on to be diagnosed with autism.
I know the lack of pointing is a red flag but the reason I'm asking is that DS has a diagnosis of autism and I have a DD of nearly 18months. She has been pointing for the last few months(at everything), plays appropriately with dollies, etc, makes a lot of noise although not really saying proper words very much(occasionally mama and dada but not very often).She wants to know what everything is though.
She also gets very frustrated very easily and does not like to get dirty hands or have crumbs etc on her.She also does not like walking on sand or grass barefoot(although she can now tolerate the grass).
I know I have to wait and see for a while as some behaviours are typical for all toddlers but obviously I am that bit more aware.
So my actual question is basically can a child still have autism even if they do point?(a lot).
Thanks

ds (asd) did point but in retrospect it was not for full shared attention just to point out his own interests. fwiw it does not sound as if there are any obvious symptoms of asd in your dd

I think the reason for the pointing is the important thing. When mine with ASD pointed it was purely a case of stretching out an arm and sticking out a finger. They weren't using it to share or communicate what they were looking at.

In contrast my dd (who doesn't have autism) would point at something she found interesting, look back at me to make sure I was looking and then point again. If I wasn't looking she would do whatever it took to get my attention before pointing again. It was used as a form of communication.

jussi your DD is at exactly the right age to try the Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (CHAT or M-CHAT) This is a link to it on the NAS website. It's 4 pages altogether so keep reading. Hopefully you'll get more from it than just looking at pointing. It's a lot of info but personally I like to know as much as possible. If you have any concerns, at least you know what to do next. HTH.

DS1 (asd, 3.9) didn't point until he was about 2.5/3 yrs old. He does point a lot now, eg. at an aeroplane, but he doesn't necessarily look at me first and then point it out. He just points and expects me to be looking at what he is looking at! He is getting better though and does sometimes get my attention before he points.

DS2 (19mths) started pointing at about 6 months but gives eye contact when he is doing it, eg. he will look at me, point at the aeroplane then maybe look back at me.

A lot of the behaviours you describe are typical toddler behaviours but I think we are so aware that we tend to over analyse sometimes. I know everytime DS2 does something that DS1 does I am convinced he will be autistic. I guess only time will tell but he is sociable, has joint attention, is developing speech.

Yep, it's the triadic pointing that is key - looking at object, pointing, looking at you as if to say "can you see that too?", then looking back at object.

My ds (asd) started pointing about 15 months. At the time I thought "phew, thank god, I'd been worried he was autistic"

But as others have said, you need to look at the quality of the pointing. Dd started pointing at 10 months, and the vigour of her point, look, point, look is so exaggerated in comparison it's almost comical. Ds's pointing was different in a subtle way, but very evident now in comparison.

Your dd sounds absolutely fine. Mine too hates getting sandy/dirty hands. Also occasionally walks on tiptoes. But I really do think she's nt.

Thanks guys,
I'm trying not to overanalyse things and there are loads of differences between DS and DD but some things just seem a bit deja-vu-ish but it's probably just me being a bit paranoid!
Anyway, thanks for responses

Bialy-will PM you(off to centreparcs next week)

Looking at old pics or video, DS pointed, although I'm not sure appropriately, but what is? But around 3ish, he changed his finger and now uses the middle one! He has HFA, ADD & Sensory DXd 6.4.

My ds pointed for the first time ever about four or five weeks ago - and even then it was a bit half-hearted, as if he wasn't sure what to do, but perhaps had seen others do it so thought it was worth a try. He was 9 last week. Neither dh or I can remember even one instance of him pointing, in fact he has always driven us round the twist by talking to us or asking questions about something without indicating what he's going on about. He does it all the time in the car - assumes we know what he knows and can see what he sees - it makes for some very confusing conversations on occasion.

Ds2 is 2.3 and nt. I was actually stunned when she started pointing, because even though ds2 is nt he didn't point much either when he was little. (We now think that this is because of him being the younger brother of ds1 and so copying a lot of his behaviour when he was young.) At 18 months, dd was able to point to ask for something, to say where she wanted to go, to show me something she was interested in and to ask 'what's that?' type of questions. In fact 'what's that?' was her mantra for what felt like the longest time and was pretty much always accompanied by a pointy finger.

DS pointed but he was pretty typical until 2.3 and then regressed and lost the pointing as well as speech etc. Looking back there were very subtle signs of ASD earlier but no-one would ever have picked them up eg slightly easier toddler / less demanding, walked a bit late, learnt letters and numbers at 2 but he did lots of social stuff eg used social words, very friendly and affectionate and all that went. He never really did the imaginative play though. He started pointing again about a year after regression but we had taught him to do it, before that he would fling our hand in the direction he wanted something.