How do infants’ communicative gestures shape caregiver responsiveness? This study assessed how the modality and directedness of 10-month-old infants' pointing influenced caregiver responses during naturalistic free play, and whether these patterns predicted later vocabulary development. We observed 28 infant-caregiver dyads during free-play sessions when infants were 10 months old, analyzing pointing characteristics and caregiver response sensitivity and modality. Results showed caregivers were significantly more likely to respond sensitively to object-directed points than to undirected points. Multimodal caregiver responses (speech + action) were more likely to follow unimodal infant points, while vocal-only responses were more likely to follow multimodal infant points, suggesting a compensatory scaffolding mechanism. For 18-month vocabulary outcomes, caregiver response sensitivity at 10 months marginally predicted receptive vocabulary scores, but infant pointing characteristics did not significantly predict either receptive or expressive vocabulary. This study highlights the critical role of caregiver sensitivity in early language comprehension, demonstrating that the relationship between infant gestures and caregiver responses is dynamic and context-dependent.