Your baby may be a born communicator, but that doesn’t mean you’ll always understand what he’s trying to say — especially in the first and second year, when communication (and comprehension) gaps between a little one and the parents who struggle to understand him can be big.
Your baby will likely develop the skills necessary to say his first word around 8 months to 12 months of age (give or take a couple of months). Until then, baby sign language can be a really helpful tool.
What is baby sign language?
Baby sign language is just what it sounds like: signs and gestures for different words or phrases you can teach your baby to do with his hands (and sometimes other parts of his body like his mouth or stomach).[1]
Baby sign language is an effective way to help your child communicate non-verbally. "It allows your one to express his needs before he knows how to use words," says Kyle Monk, M.D., a board-certified pediatrician at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and a member of the What to Expect Medical Review Board.
Better communication, in turn, leads to smoother interactions and fewer frustrations for both of you. It also boosts baby’s confidence as a communicator ("They get me!"), which spurs his motivation to keep communicating — first through signs, then through a mix of signs and sounds, and ultimately through words.
"I think teaching baby sign language is a great way to interact with baby in addition to verbal communication," says Jesil Pazhayampallil, M.D., F.A.A.P., (aka "Dr. Paz"), a board-certified pediatrician at Good Samaritan University Hospital in West Islip, New York, and a member of the What to Expect Medical Review Board. "Anecdotally, I taught my own baby some basic signs, and it was wonderful: She was able to tell me some of her needs prior to being able to verbalize them."
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The best signs to teach baby
When you first start baby sign language, develop natural signs that work for you and your baby.
"Most people stick with formal signs from American Sign Language (ASL).[2] But some families might make up their own signs," says Gina Posner, M.D., F.A.A.P., a board-certified pediatrician at MemorialCare Medical Group in Fountain Valley, California, and a member of the What to Expect Medical Review Board.
Ultimately, any simple gesture that fits a word or phrase well can work, as long as you're consistent with how you use them.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends focusing first on signs for the things that your baby does, wants or sees most often.
"A few basic signs can be relatively easy to incorporate into your communication with baby," says Dr. Paz.
Here are some suggestions for signs to start with:
- More: Touch fingers to thumb on each hand and then touch hands together at the fingertips repeatedly
- All done: Fingers facing up, twist your hands back and forth
- Up: Arms up
- Sleep: Hands together and supporting a tilted head
- Hungry: A rubbed belly
- Eat/food: Tapping the tips of fingers to mouth (like you’re eating) with palm face down and thumb touching fingers
- Milk: Squeeze fingers in and out (like you’re squeezing a cow’s udder)
- Drink: A cupped hand placed to the mouth
- Down: Palm facing down, with index finger pointed to the ground, and then lowering hand
- Mommy: Tap your thumb to your chin (open palm, fingers facing up)
- Daddy: Tap your thumb to your forehead (open palm, fingers facing up)
How to teach baby sign language
If your baby is about 8 to 9 months old, you’ve probably seen him wave goodbye or point to something he wants. He’s learned these gestures simply by watching and mimicking the adults in his life (that’s you!).
Teaching your baby sign language is as easy as repeating a gesture and saying the corresponding word when you have your baby’s attention. The key is repetition.
"It's important to consistently use the sign when appropriate, and to use it appropriately. You should say the word at the same time as making the sign, but also make sure your actions go with the word," says Tina Feeley, M.D., M.P.H., a board-certified pediatrician at Boston Children's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and a member of the What to Expect Medical Review Board.
You should give your baby more of something when making the sign for "more," for example, or stop an activity when making the sign for "all done." Once he starts to catch on that he can use gestures to communicate with you, he may surprise you with how quickly he learns baby sign language.
If you’d like to start using baby signs, speech-language pathologists recommend keeping these tips in mind:
- Sign on early. Begin teaching your baby sign language as soon as he shows an active interest in communicating with you — preferably by 8 or 9 months, though there’s no harm in getting into the signing habit earlier or later. Most babies will start signing back somewhere between 10 months and 14 months.
- Sign as needed. Choose signs that are important, meaningful and useful to your child. These include signs that express meeting baby's everyday needs — hunger, thirst and sleepiness, to name a few — and relate to his routines.
- Follow your baby’s signs. As their fine motor skills develop, many babies invent their own signs or modify signs. If yours does, always use the signs of his design, which are more meaningful to him.
- Speak and sign at the same time. Say the word out loud while doing baby sign language to ensure your little one connects the sign with the spoken word.
- Put in face time. Children love to look at our faces and especially into our eyes. Try to make signs close to your face so that your baby will be more likely to notice them.
- Use the world around you. If you are doing the sign for an object, make the sign close to or on top of the object.
- Reward your baby. Your child is more apt to learn a sign if he gets what he’s asking for promptly. So if your baby signs for "all done," acknowledge his communication verbally and take away his plate.
- Sign him up. If you want to go more formal, sign up for a class with your little one on baby sign language (many hospitals, community centers and other organizations offer them). Or look for books or online resources that teach baby sign language, many of which use the formal signs from American Sign Language (ASL).
- Sign up the whole family. The more people in baby’s life who can speak his language, the happier he’ll be. So aim to make siblings, grandparents, caregivers and anyone else who spends a lot of time with your baby familiar with at least the most important signs.
- Know when to sign off. Signing, like all forms of communication, should develop naturally and at a little one’s own pace, without any pressure. If your baby seems frustrated, resists using signs, or seems overwhelmed, don’t force it. The idea is to reduce frustration for both of you, not increase it, so try again when your child seems more open to it.
- Encourage your baby right from the beginning. When your child begins to imitate your signing, it likely won’t be perfect right away — so consider it sign language babbling. Acknowledge and respond to signs that are close to your signs to keep your baby interested and motivated to continue.
- Don't stress if your baby isn't into sign language at all. If your baby doesn't seem interested in signing after repeated attempts, that's not an automatic cause for concern. "Not being able to sign does not indicate a developmental delay if the infant is meeting other milestones," Dr. Feeley says.
Benefits of baby sign language
Baby sign language doesn't just help you and your little one communicate more effectively. It "can also offer an opportunity for plenty of positive interaction, and anything that increases parent baby bonding is a good thing in our book," notes the AAP.
Nonverbal communication tools can also be especially valuable for children who start talking on the later side. Some kids find communicating frustrating, which results in behavior problems (tantrums, crying, screaming or hitting) when they’re not understood.
Studies have shown that language delays are a risk factor in behavior problems in babies and toddlers. Baby sign language can help to alleviate some of that frustration by offering a means of expression.
That said, while sign language is a great tool to encourage early development of language skills, it’s not a substitute for professional help. If you suspect your child may have a speech or language delay or hearing loss, talk to your child’s doctor.
They may refer your child to a licensed speech-language pathologist and/or audiologist for tests to diagnose or rule out any issues that require important follow-up help with a specialist.
Will sign language slow my baby’s verbal development?
Research suggests that an early method of communicating like sign language can stimulate your baby's desire to learn more communication techniques, including talking.
Baby sign language gives your little one an effective way to engage with those around him, so he gets even more out of social experiences.
Signing with your baby means you’ll be spending more time talking with him too — and there’s no better way to help him learn to speak than speaking to him.
"As long as you're not replacing verbal communications with signs, it should not slow verbal development down," says Dr. Paz.
In other words, while you incorporate signs into your exchanges with your baby, keep talking just as much.
Does baby sign language improve verbal skills?
Do baby signs signal a smarter future for your baby? Not necessarily.
Though a baby who’s able to sign definitely has an easier time communicating early on, studies have not shown that signing to your baby will enable him to speak sooner or give him a lasting language edge.
And once a child can speak and be understood, the verbal gap between signing babies and those who skip signs seems to diminish and eventually disappear.
Baby sign language can make life a little easier during the preverbal stage, but it’s definitely not necessary — either for your relationship with your baby or his language development. So sign on to baby sign language if you’re feeling it, but if you’re not (or baby’s not), don’t feel compelled to keep it up.
The important thing is that you communicate with your little one often, in a way that works for you.
"Interact, engage, narrate, talk to baby as much as you can," says Dr. Paz.
Inevitably, some nonverbal communication will make its way into the mix on baby’s side, whether it’s gestures like pointing or assorted grunts and squeals — all of which can be surprisingly effective. And whether you choose to sign or not, the words will eventually flow, and the communication gap will close.
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