RL.B.22 POINTS TO AN OBJECT WHEN NAMED

Soon your child will be learning to choose between alternative objects or pictures, and it will help her if she can point to indicate her choice.

No choice is involved in this activity: it concentrates on the direction ‘point’.

Many small children enjoy pointing to objects – it is a way of sharing their interests with others. Often a point develops from a more general reaching action with little specific teaching.

How to Assess

Materials: A familiar toy or object which your child knows by name.

Method: Place the toy in front of your child and say ‘Point to …’. Give 3 tries, using different objects if you wish.

Score plus if your child raises her arm and points with an isolated finger (need not be her index finger) in 2 out of 3 tries.

How to Teach

Continue on from RL.B.18 by pointing to the object named. (You may well have been doing this anyway.) Say: ‘Look, I can point to . . . You point to . . .’

Give physical help if necessary, by lifting your child’s arm and uncurling her index finger with yours. Gradually reduce the help you give her.

Playtime and Round-the-house Activities

You can point to all sorts of things around the house, near and far. Picture books provide excellent pointing practice – refer to Sequence FM.G: Book Skills.

Remembering and Extending

You will find that the pointing action is used in many ways in the sequences that follow. Sequence RLC: Choosing Between Alternatives: Objects and Pictures can be introduced now.

Think about ways in which your child could use her pointing action to communicate with others. Show her that she can point to indicate that she wants that dolly on the high shelf or her bottle, or a ride on the swing. Always respond when she points to things, so that she learns that this is a reliable way to draw your attention to the things that interest her. Of course, you will name things for her as well. Pointing (and other gestures) are not learned instead of talking. By helping the child to extend her communication skills they will ultimately help her to learn to talk. This point is discussed further in Book 3, Chapter 2.