As far as pointing goes, the biggest red flag is the complete absence of or severe delay in pointing. The fact that your child points at all is a good sign, I would think. However, I agree that the lack of joint attention you describe is also worth noting.
Your concern about joint attention can also be expressed as a concern about eye contact. Eye contact is a well-known red flag, so you might get a bigger reaction if you mention it, depending on the evaluator of course.
I have a couple questions.
1) Your child isn't switching his gaze between the object of interest and you, but how is his eye contact with you when there isn't an object of interest?
2) The kind of pointing you were talking about is "proto-declarative", ie communicating "look at that" or "let's talk about that", and you say he doesn't look at you to establish/build joint interest and attention. Does he use pointing to communicative "give me that? (known as proto-imperative). If so, does he look at you to make sure you're aware of his demand and following up on it?
A couple final comments.
- Pointing seems to have origins as an extension of the reaching gesture, so it seems logical to me that an autistic child would point to objects despite no apparent interest in communicating or getting your attention. For example, consider a picture of a ball. If the ball were real, it would be natural for him to reach for it. Since it's a picture, it's natural for him to point to it (at least that's how I see it).
- A typical one year old will point to something that the parent has already seen, just to enjoy the joint attention. A two year old, on the other hand, will tend to notice that the parent probably hasn't seen the interesting object, and will point to direct their attention.
If you're extra interested in pointing (LOL), you can read my sources below. Good luck with everything.
http://bowland-files.lancs.ac.uk/chimp/langac/LECTURE3/point 2.htm - reader friendly about pointing in infants.
http://www.leaonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/S15327647JCD0202_1 - abstract of a study on pointing in 1 and 2 year olds.
http://lchc.ucsd.edu/DissEdu/COGR261.W06/webboard/261webboar d2.htm - hard to read, mentions pointing as an extension of reaching gesture.
I think it's def worth checking out. he could be interested in seeing your reaction when doing something naughty or funny and that's not really joint attention. It is good that he points tho. It's great you are so on the ball, He could be at the high end of the spectrum but it still something you need to check out with a dev doctor and it's always good to get it done quickly, the younger the better no matter what or how mild the developmental problem is. Keep us posted and good luck - i hope everything works out fine.
not having joint attanetion is an important marker for ASD -_ I would definitely bring it up
However he could simply be too busy looking at things and there may be so many things to get his attaention at a fair
The he looks for your response is a contraindication for ASD as well
My son who is classic ASD - never even pointed - we had to teach him to point and then also if we dont ask him to do it all the time - he wont do it - like its something he does FOR us
Bu i n fact it is something that we really have not been able to achieve for R even after 6 months of EI
He will bring us things but not show them to us - they are like gifts to make us happy - like he will get me to wear my nightgown ( which means I am not going out of the house - shows clever association ) - but never something for the pure joy of showing it to us
I think when he does something naughty...and looks at you to check your reaction is a great thing. He wants to see your reaction and probably based on that modify his actions. This is reference checking.
About the joint attention (looking at something interesting and then look at you) it is important too. It could be a red flag.Do you look at his face when he is pointing to something with an exaggerated face and sound?
Daddy
Hello- Can someone tell me what to think of this. So many of you on this board have been kind enough to give your opinions on my 19 month ds. Most of you have said he sounds like he'll be fine (including a Dev. Ped., EI, therapists, blah, blah, blah).
We went to our local county fair last night and my ds was really excited and pointing to animals, trucks, balloons, you name it. He LITERALLY pointed at 75 things and was saying things like oohhhh ahhhh. Not one time did he look at us to see if we were seeing what he was seeing. Now I know that this is a red flag. What should I think about this?
Who is he pointing at things of interest for, if he doesn't want us to look? I saw other kids his age, practically turning all the way around in their stroller to see if their mom was paying attention to what they were looking at.
Am I making too big of a deal about this? This seems really significant. I know pointing to things of interest is a good thing, but what if he isn't looking at us for a reaction?
On the other hand, when he does something naughty or something good or funny, he will look for our reaction most of the time.
So confused. Thoughts???