I remember the developmental pediatrician pointing at an object and told Sarah to tell him what he was pointing at..she couldnt..he then told her without pointing what he was looking at (wanted her to follow the direction his eyes were looking at..) she couldnt..I tried it in his office pointing at the table right in front of her and she still couldnt?
We did an ABA program for weeks teaching her to follow our point to an object and vice versa and then having her quess what we were looking at...made a game of it like "I spy something blue" and we would look at the object till she guessed it..she mastered the program but now she needs tweaking again because she still has problems with it...
I think this and nonverbal signs are going to be hard for her and it does seem to be affliated with joint attention?
Try it with your kids..I found it very odd she couldnt do this at 4 years old even with huge objects that were very obvious.
I suspect that it's a red flag because it signals lack of interest in joint attention, but the problem is probably multi-faceted.
My son did a whole-hand point at age 1 and said "see?" but I don't remember much about his pointing otherwise.
My son still has difficulty following a point. I have him look at my hand and then I move it towards what I want to point to. It seems he has an easier time tracking movement than an in-place point.
For the life of me I can't remember if my ds pointed as a toddler.