Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello,
I am really worried about my son. He just turned 17 months although he was born six weeks early and he is still not pointing with his index finger consistently. He has been pointing at things with his whole hand for a while now and because I have really been working on it he started very occasionally vaguely pointing with his index finger as well. He does a funny sort of wave when he wants and rarely claps. He does imitate us and has about 20 words and 10 animal sounds. He has excellent eye contact and is very interested in people, will smile at everyone. When he plays he doesn't tend to look to see if I am watching but does bring me books and other items to show. One thing is he still wants to breastfeed absolutely all the time and he is quite clingy. He cries whenever I leave the room although he can be consoled and he has this funny fake cry to get me to lift him up. He imitates talking on the phone, feeding dolls etc.
Do you think I should try to get him assessed or give it some more time? Any advice is much appreciated.
I would give it more time. My understanding is the general thing with pointing and autism is that they don't do it to draw your attention to things or to show you what they want rather than the actual action of how they point. If he's talking, showing eye contact, an interest in people and is able to take part in imaginary play then there aren't really alarm bells for that age. I'd see how he develops. If there are still behaviours that you think might be an indication when he's a little older then perhaps it's worth exploring. That's only my personal opinion though. If it's really worrying you, go and have a chat with the gp and see what they think.