Pointing

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My five-year-old has trouble understanding when we point to objects. He doesn't seem to follow the finger but looks all around. Anyone else notice or have problems with this? Thanks...

Yes I have problems when people point to things without identifying what they are pointing at. If you think about it when you point at something you're also pointing at all the things near the thing you're pointing at and for someone who possibly sees all details in any situation without assiging any specific value to them (apart from the things that are important to him) it can be difficult. Don't think there's much can be done to make it easier other than being very close to the things you point at or describing them either by name or the way they look. Sorry if that didn't make any sense

e2a: I just remembered; when someone does this (points) it gives me exactly the same bewildered helpless feeling I get when someone starts speaking to me in foreign language that they expect me to understand.

Califather it sounds like your son doesn't yet know that your finger is pointing to something. Could be a theory of mind delay.

My son is 5 too, and he had the same problem, He didn't seem to understand that my finger was pointing to something, he would stare at my hand, or look in random directions, so I taught him left, right, up, down, in front, in back, etc. so now when we want him to look at something we'll tell him look to your left, or look behind you, while pointing to whatever it is that we want him to look at. that seems to have helped