Bonus points

Did I read somewhere that it isn't polite to point? Then someday we'll have to break Isaac of his exciting new habit -- but not yet, because we're enjoying the insight it provides into his mind. Yes, he points! About two days ago Isaac began pointing at distant objects in the real world. He had been purposefully touching pictures in books, as well as our facial features, for about three weeks before that. (He had been touching components of pictures in books -- like the bulbous toes of a frog, for example -- almost as soon as he could control his hands, but I don't think he was doing it to communicate with us.)

Now when I ask him, "Izzy, where's Walt?" he can demonstrate his understanding by pointing. As I wrote previously, before the advent of pointing we would follow his gaze to see what he was looking at, but it was just a guess. And honestly sometimes there's some guesswork involved in following his swerving finger, but it's a more substantial and human form of communication.

I have used the point test to confirm he understands quite a few words. This evening Isaac, overtired and cranky, began to cry as we drove back home from a birthday party. Singing to him didn't work, so I decided to try out his vocabulary. "Isaac," I said, "we are riding in the car. If you look out the window, you might see a truck or a bird. When we get home, you can turn on the light. Then we can go outside with Walt and you can play with the dog. You can see Mama's nose, and maybe even her belly button." It worked immediately. He stopped crying by truck, and by the time I got to belly button, he was laughing. (It was like one of those exercises in high school English class where you got extra credit for using all the spelling words in one surreal and marginally narrative paragraph.)

Perhaps an even more exciting aspect of pointing is that he can use it to ask us questions. Finally, communication is a two-way street! It can sometimes be a challenge to provide the right answers to his inquiring finger ("That's a radio ... no, it's a boom box ... no, it's a CD player") but I'm relishing his curiosity, even when he points at the same things over and over ("That's the light ... that's the light switch ... light ... light switch") or when what he is pointing at is unclear ("That's ... the wall? ... the corner? ... a shadow?").

And it makes for interesting discussion. He's fascinated by buttons, rivets, nails, and fasteners of all kinds, so while we were visiting my parents, I found myself disparaging his grandmother thusly: "That's a screw ... that's your Oma ... screw ... Oma ... screw ... Oma."

Heh. Luckily my mom didn't seem to notice.