POINTING

[mrsforgetful]

notice today that ds2 (7) almost launches his whole body into a 'pointing' at something- it remided me of the outreach team telling me they teach their pupils to 'imagine a string' from them to the object- ds2 appears to 'reach' towards the thing he wants to draw my attention to- feels like the way he used to pull my arm to the direction he desired......ds1 either kind of jerks his head in the direction he wants you to look - or he tells you directions....yesterday in the school playground he was trying to make us all go home quicker- and was pulling me as usuall...then he said we should be going 'north west' instead of 'south east' Great isn't it....:0 he knows the points on a compass- but doesn't 'know how to point' !!....yes i know that it's not simply a case of learning to point!!!XXXX

it sounds to me that you got 2 very social and inteligent children

How about following a point? That's still hard work.

Funny yesterday there was a really clear moon and I said to ds1 can you see the moon? and he sad "mmm" (means moon) so I said can you point. And he did! (without the index finger being clearly separated but it was doing the pointing) And it was in the right direction (often when I ask him to point at something he points in totally the opposite direction). cheered me up as we'd had a dreadful day!

that's wonderful JJ- i started this thread as i was honestly 'gobsmacked' that i hadn't really noticed ds2 ponting like this b4- the moon was ds1's 'single' routine b4 bed up to 2yrs- we'd stand outside the front door and i'd say

I see the monn
and the moon seeys me
I love the moon
and the moon loves me

then at about 5yrs the moon became a problem as it was too bright for him- he has to have a pitch black room- and even has been known to stick stickers all over the lcd display on his vcr to stop the light from the display bugging him!

Following the point is tricky- pointless pointing out anything from the car (windmills in norfolk!) as he misses them b4 he's sussed the direction to look- as is aeroplanes.....i always thought his 'hate' of aeropolanes was just the noise- andno realise that it must be totally confusing to an autistic child as the plane will have often gone past before you hear the noise- however the child may look to where the noise is- and there's nothing there?! do you know what i mean??

Also- slightly different- is the trying to get there attention whilst they are 'engrossed'- often i find that by the time i suceed- the reason i wanted their attention is no longer relavent- they then cannot 'see' why you bothered them- this tends to be with when i notice things on cartoons rtc and i try to 'share' their interest....maybe this is why they are permanently rewinding the bits on videos that they like- or watch re-runs on cartoon network over and over again- when just watching normal tv is not so rewarding- ds1 will almost certainly tape every programme he watches - so can replay/replay and replay