teaching pointing? | Autism PDD

Hey Marks_dad.

What's in it for your son to point on command. Sometimes I think our kids know what we want of them, hence the struggle when you physically prompt , but they don't see the point (oops sorry for the pun) in doing it. There can be a component of not wanting to be compliant and it is hard to get over this. I should know my son was the king of non-compliant.

I would prompt him to point e.g. "Point to Ball" Gently physical prompt, (OK maybe if he struggles just a bit firmer LOL) then give him a treat with a "Yay you pointed".

You could also model the behaviour with his mom so he can see. Get her to point to something in the book, reward her etc.

I also agree that setting up situations where he will need to point is a great idea.

I have a great paper by a speech pathologist Dr Kathy Ziatis from here in Australia, "Practical Strategies for Promoting Communicative Competence and Theory of Mind in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders" which I tried to copy and paste in this message but I couldn't work out how.

It talks a lot on how to set up situations to promote communication in a pragmatically correct way. It may be helpful if you want it. Just pm me and I would be happy to email it to you.

crystal1971 my ds did that, grab my finger to point at first too! After awhile he caught on! He 4.5 and just "mastered" pointing.

littlebyrd I thought I was horrible parent too when ds wasn't developing normally. But now it all makes sense.

Each time we went for well check up I mentioned to the ped about his not talking. Everytime they blew me off. Because he is not is school, becuase he has no siblings etc..... Needless to say we no longer go there!

But the pointing will happen just be patient!

Also another thing to keep in mind, maybe for future reference, is some things these kids on the spectrum never get. Jeffrey knows what money is for but he still can't count it. He has an internal clock built in but don't ask him to tell you the time. His good teacher from his second school told me some things they will never master. And that you just move on. Jeffrey wasn't real good at pointing either but we didn't push him on it. They could think maybe like whats the point at pointing at the object? I see it just fine, lol. Now lately I wished Jeffrey never learned the pointing gesture, lol.

Tammy

Thanks for the input and suggestions, everyone!

As far as generalizing (stuffed dog vs. picture of a dog)... our son does that very, very well. If you point to a picture of a dog, he says "dog" every time. But if you say "point to the dog" he just looks at the picture and says "dog."

Now, when the speech therapist came by the other day, she had an Ernie puppet, and asked our son where Ernie's nose, eyes, ears, etc. were, and he pointed to those, so you may be on to something, Tammy. I'll try it with real objects next time.

I guess it could be argued that as long as our son can identify things and express his needs for things (both of which he does well), pointing just isn't that important. But I'd like him to follow through on point commands -- it's just such a fundamental aspect of communication! He'll have to do it sooner or later.
mark_dad38582.866875

I agree w/ the others that pointing does come in time as your child develops an understanding of language and communication. My 19 mo old ds is not autistic (that we know of), but he does have a language delay and pointing is an issue we are working on w/ him now. We pretty much do what everyone else does, but I know he is still behind in understanding language/ communication so he really doesn't point.

I see your reasons for wanting him to follow through w/ pointing commands. Maybe you have already stated this - to me pointing is not that important, especially if he is pointing to objects that he is interested in or hopefully wants to show you. What you describe is problems w/ him not understand your request and therefore not reacting to your requests. This is something I have been working on w/ my daughter for many months (she just turned 3 in late June). I think in time when you repeat the question of "point to...." and you move his hand to your request, he will understand and eventually follow the direction. It just takes time and a lot of work.

Do you have a Little Touch Leap Pad? If you push down with your finger on different parts of the pages it names things or read the story. It may help him isolate his index finger and also reinforce the action. How old is he? You have to push kind of hard but if he's over 2 he should be okay. I honestly don't know how they expect a 12 month old to be able to push work that thing!

Maybe asking him "where's ball?" or "show me ball" instead of "point to ball"?

We've been working on hand over hand pointing for a long time. DS is okay pointing to things in books - but he didn't get the concept of protoimperative pointing ( pointing to ask for something) . Finally this past week he understands that if he wants something out of reach - he should point to it!

Now we have to work on the elusive protodeclarative ( pointing to share an interest in an object ie. look mommy there's a dog).

Sometimes- It seems we work on things and work on things and then one day isomthing in that cute little head of theirs just clicks!

Good luck! We have things like the Leap Pad, and he definitely uses his index finger with those. And as I mentioned, if I say "count the frogs on the page" or something like that, he'll point at each one while counting "1, 2, 3, etc.".

It's just strange that he can't follow the "point to x" command. Then again, we haven't tried very hard to tech it to him.

It's so strange, the concept of teaching things so inherently "built in" to NT kids. Like "yes/no," or pointing. Just more things on my list of flags that we'll take into the diagnostics session with us... hopefully within the month.
Just occured to me that maybe I should ask him to count single items, just to get him to point and say "1".

Then maybe I can say "good pointing!" or something... so many angles to try...

[QUOTE=mark_dad]We have things like the Leap Pad, and he definitely uses his index finger with those. And as I mentioned, if I say "count the frogs on the page" or something like that, he'll point at each one while counting "1, 2, 3, etc.".

It's just strange that he can't follow the "point to x" command. Then again, we haven't tried very hard to tech it to him.

It's so strange, the concept of teaching things so inherently "built in" to NT kids. Like "yes/no," or pointing. Just more things on my list of flags that we'll take into the diagnostics session with us... hopefully within the month.
[/QUOTE]

For the longest time before I even knew dd was autistic, I thought parenting was the most difficult thing in the world and I just flat out stunk because my child was not developing normally. It is amazing how it is just so natural for a typical child to pick things up w/o much effort, but we really have put a lot of thought and effort into how to teach our ASD kid. In the beginning it was hard to adjust to THINKING first before Interacting w/ my ASD kid. Now I am a pro thanks to my sweetie.

My son at the end of trying to teach him to point would actually grab my pointer finger and point to the object we wanted him to with my finger, not his. Go figure. I found it hilarious! He occasionally points at 3, but not consistently.

With my 3yr old nothing worked to get him to point. We tried EVERYTHING!!! Then one day... He has a shoe fetish, changes shoes every 30 minutes all day long if you let him. I got tired of tripping over shoes all over the house so I put them in all in a locked cabniet but left one pair out on a high shelf in case we wanted to go outside. He came up to me and said "shoes". I told him no, they are locked up. After the third time of asking, he walked up to me signed and said help and took my hand and led me over to the shelf. He then pointed at the shoes and shouted "shoes please". He has been pointing ever since.

For my son the Hanen Program works!! I have to give him a reason to communicate. I wouldn't worry. When your son is ready to point, he will.

I know that isn't the same as pointing in a picture book but you may try buying some puffy stickers or glitter stickers and making him his own pointing book. He can place the stickers on the pages himself or w/help. The crafts stores have all kinds of stickers from puffy, sparkling, felt and all kinds of objects and things.

For anna having the feel of it fed the sensory area thay somehow connected what I had been trying to teach her. I had for months showed her colors in books and on videos but she just kept forgetting until she could see and touch the color.

Hope I have helped. (:

Hey all --

Has anyone here had any success with techniques designed to teach pointing?

Our son has really sketchy pointing skills. If I ask him to count something, he'll point at each thing as he counts "1, 2, 3," but if we're looking at a book and I say "point to the ball," he'll just look at the ball and say "ball!" but he won't point. I've tried dragging his finger to the thing when I ask, but he's very intent on NOT pointing, and firmly resists having his hand moved. I've also, of course, pointed at the objects myself while emphasizing the word "point," but so far no go.

I'd love to hear any suggestions -- thanks!

Mark

Were these physical objects that he could actually see, pick up, and feel, that you were pointing to? I know during one of Jeffrey's early tests they could show him a picture of a puppy and he wouldn't know what it was. But if you showed him a stuffed puppy he knew what it was. Could be your child has not developed the abstract thinking part yet. Maybe he needs to actually see the object and can't transform it to the picture in the book.

Tammy

My ds wouldn't/couldn't point either. I would just ask the question, "point to the xxx" and after no response, I would just pick up his finger and point to it and then praise him. Finally at 4.5 he just recently started to point.

Don't give up it will happen! Everything happens in it's own time.

Well, after only a few days of "hand-over-hand" teaching, our son is pointing at every thing we ask him to, and he smiles SO big when he does it!

I don't know why we never thought to teach him this before. I guess it's just because his language is so need-based -- we always know what he needs, so there's little reason for him to point, sort of like what Tammy was saying.

Anyway... success!

Tammy

Yeah! Too cool!!

pat