To teach baby sign language, start by picking three to five simple signs — like “milk,” “more,” and “all done” — and use them consistently during everyday routines. Say the word out loud while making the ASL sign at the same time, then follow through with the object or action. For example, at mealtime, say “more” while bringing your fingertips together, then give your child another bite. Do this repeatedly, across multiple settings, and with every caregiver involved. Most families begin around six to eight months, though babies typically won’t sign back until they’re eight to twelve months old.
The method is straightforward, but the patience required is real — it can take two or more months of daily signing before you see your child produce their first sign. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends introducing baby sign language around six months, when infants become developmentally curious and start paying closer attention to what’s presented to them. But there’s no hard cutoff. Some parents begin signing at birth simply for exposure, while others don’t start until after the first birthday, when toddler frustration makes communication tools especially welcome. A landmark NIH-funded study by Acredolo, Goodwyn, and Brown found that babies trained in signing showed statistically higher language scores than both verbally trained and control groups — and follow-up testing at age eight showed the signing group averaged twelve IQ points higher than their non-signing peers. This article walks through the practical mechanics of teaching baby sign language — when to start, which signs to teach first, what the research actually says (including its limits), how to get other caregivers on board, what programs and resources cost, and how to handle the inevitable stalls and frustrations along the way.
Table of Contents
- When Should You Start Teaching Baby Sign Language?
- The Core Method: Say It, Sign It, Show It
- What Does the Research Actually Say About Baby Sign Language?
- Getting Every Caregiver on the Same Page
- Programs, Apps, and What They Cost
- Signing With Older Toddlers and Preschoolers
- The Bigger Picture: Signing as a Communication Foundation
When Should You Start Teaching Baby Sign Language?
The six-to-eight-month window gets cited most often, and for good reason. Around this age, babies begin to track objects, imitate facial expressions, and show sustained interest in what adults are doing with their hands. The Cleveland Clinic and developmental specialists at Beyond Boundaries both point to this period as the sweet spot — not because babies will sign back right away, but because they’re absorbing the connection between gesture and meaning. That said, the timeline is more flexible than most guides suggest. Parents who start at four to five months are simply building a longer runway of exposure before their child’s motor skills catch up. Babies generally develop the fine motor control needed for intentional gestures between nine and twelve months, according to both The Bump and Huckleberry.
So if you start at six months, expect a quiet period of at least two to three months before you see results. If you start at twelve or fourteen months with a toddler who’s already frustrated by communication gaps, you may see faster uptake because the cognitive readiness is already there. One important caveat: starting early doesn’t guarantee earlier signing. A baby who begins exposure at four months and a baby who starts at eight months may both produce their first sign around the same age. The difference is that the earlier starter has had more time to build receptive understanding, which can pay off as vocabulary expands. Think of it less like a race and more like soaking — the longer the exposure, the more saturated the foundation.
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The Core Method: Say It, Sign It, Show It
The teaching technique itself is deceptively simple. You say the word aloud, make the corresponding ASL sign, and then provide the thing you’re talking about. If you’re signing “milk,” you say “milk,” squeeze your hand in the milking motion, and then offer the bottle or breast. The spoken word is essential — baby sign language is not meant to replace speech, and signing silently actually undermines the process. The goal is to build a bridge between gesture and spoken language, not to create a separate channel. Repetition is the engine.
Pathways.org recommends embedding signs into routines that happen every day without variation — meals, diaper changes, bath time, bedtime. These low-stress, predictable moments give your baby repeated exposure in context, which is how the association between sign and meaning gets reinforced. Signing “eat” once at a random moment during the day is far less effective than signing “eat” every single time you put your child in the high chair. Start with three to five signs and resist the urge to introduce a dozen at once. “More,” “milk,” “eat,” “all done,” and “help” are consistently recommended as first signs by BabySignLanguage.com and Today’s Parent, largely because they map to things babies care about most urgently: food, comfort, and agency. Once your child is producing those reliably, you can layer in “please,” “water,” “mommy,” “daddy,” and “sleep.” Trying to teach too many signs simultaneously often leads to parents dropping the practice altogether because it feels overwhelming.
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What Does the Research Actually Say About Baby Sign Language?
The most frequently cited study in this space is the 2000 research by Linda Acredolo, Susan Goodwyn, and Douglas Brown, funded by the National Institutes of Health. They followed 103 families divided into three groups: 32 infants trained in signing, 32 given enhanced verbal training, and 39 controls. The signing group scored significantly higher on both receptive and expressive language measures. When those same children were retested at age eight, the signing group averaged IQ scores twelve points above the non-signing peers — a gap that surprised even the researchers. However, it’s worth noting that some researchers and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association have raised questions about whether commercially marketed baby sign programs overstate these benefits. ASHA draws a distinction between the natural encouragement of gestures — something all parents do instinctively when they wave bye-bye or point — and the structured, branded programs that sometimes imply signing will produce gifted children.
The research supports signing as beneficial, but the magnitude of the benefit and how much of it comes from the signing itself versus the increased parent-child interaction is still debated. What is not debated is safety. No study has found any evidence that baby sign language delays speech development. The Cleveland Clinic, ASHA, and multiple independent research reviews all agree on this point. There’s also consistent evidence that signing reduces tantrums and parental stress — a finding supported by the INSIGHT study published in PMC. Perhaps most notably, research from Indiana University found that children initially assessed as lower-ability learners showed the largest gains from sign training, suggesting that signing may be most valuable for the kids who need the most help bridging the communication gap.
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Getting Every Caregiver on the Same Page
One of the most commonly overlooked steps in teaching baby sign language is consistency across caregivers. If a parent signs “more” at dinner but the grandparent who watches the baby three days a week doesn’t, the reinforcement cycle breaks down. Huckleberry specifically emphasizes that all regular caregivers — daycare providers, nannies, grandparents, older siblings — should learn and use the same core signs. This doesn’t require everyone to take a class. A short demonstration of five signs, paired with a printed reference card on the fridge, is usually enough. The challenge is more social than educational: some caregivers may feel self-conscious about signing or dismiss it as unnecessary.
Framing it as “this is how she tells us she wants more food” rather than “we’re teaching her sign language” can reduce resistance. When a grandparent sees a ten-month-old sign “all done” and push her plate away instead of screaming, the buy-in tends to follow quickly. A real-world example: a family where both parents sign consistently but the daycare provider doesn’t may find that their child signs enthusiastically at home but reverts to crying or pointing at daycare. This isn’t a failure of the child’s learning — it’s a context problem. The child has learned that signing works in one environment but not another. Getting the daycare provider to use even two or three signs can close that gap significantly.
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Programs, Apps, and What They Cost
Families looking for structured support have several options at different price points. The Signing Time Academy, the educational arm of Two Little Hands Productions (whose content previously aired on Nick Jr. and PBS), offers instructor-led programs. The Baby Signs Program, one of the original commercial offerings in this space, provides another curriculum-based approach. For in-person group classes, expect to pay around $105 for a six-week course — Signs of Learning is one example of this format. On the digital side, ASL-learning apps range from free to modest monthly subscriptions. Ace ASL runs about $3.99 per month or $9.99 per year, while ASL Pocket Sign costs $5.99 per month or $59.99 per year. The tradeoff between classes and apps is predictable: classes offer social reinforcement, real-time feedback, and a community of other signing families, but they require a fixed schedule and cost more. Apps offer convenience and lower cost but depend entirely on self-motivation, and they can’t correct your form or encourage your child in real time. For many families, the most cost-effective approach is free: watch a handful of ASL demonstration videos online for the five to ten signs you want to start with, print a reference sheet, and practice during daily routines. The structured programs become more valuable if you want to expand beyond basic signs, if you’re interested in actual ASL grammar and syntax, or if you find that accountability and community help you stay consistent. ## When Progress Stalls: Common Frustrations and How to Handle Them The single biggest reason parents abandon baby sign language is the lag between effort and results.
Two months of signing “milk” at every feeding with no response can feel pointless. But that silence is normal — babies are building receptive understanding long before their motor skills allow them to produce signs. The parallel with spoken language is useful here: babies understand words like “no” and “bottle” months before they can say them. Signing follows the same pattern. When your child does start signing, expect approximations, not precision. A baby’s version of “more” might look like clapping or banging fists together rather than the clean fingertip-to-fingertip motion. Celebrate these attempts. If you wait for perfect form before responding, you’ll extinguish the behavior you’re trying to encourage. Over time, the signs will sharpen, just as early babbling gradually becomes recognizable words. If your child is over twelve months, has had consistent exposure, and still shows no interest in signing, it’s worth considering a few possibilities. Some children are more verbally oriented and may skip signing in favor of early speech. Others may need more exaggerated, animated signing to capture their attention. And in some cases, a lack of response to both signing and verbal communication may warrant a conversation with your pediatrician about developmental screening — not because signing failure indicates a problem, but because communication milestones in general are worth monitoring.
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Signing With Older Toddlers and Preschoolers
Baby sign language isn’t just for babies. Toddlers between eighteen months and three years who are struggling with the gap between what they understand and what they can say often benefit enormously from even a small signing vocabulary. The sign for “help,” for instance, can replace a full-blown meltdown when a two-year-old can’t open a container or reach a toy.
“Hurt” and “scared” give children language for experiences they may not have the verbal skills to describe yet. For families who start late, the good news is that older toddlers learn signs faster than infants because their cognitive and motor development is more advanced. A toddler who sees “more” modeled three or four times at snack may start using it the same day. The window for signing to be useful doesn’t close when speech begins — many children use signs as a bridge well into their preschool years, dropping them naturally as their spoken vocabulary catches up.
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The Bigger Picture: Signing as a Communication Foundation
The lasting value of baby sign language may have less to do with the signs themselves and more to do with what the practice trains parents to do: slow down, make eye contact, narrate experiences, and wait for a response. These habits — known in developmental science as responsive parenting — are independently associated with stronger language outcomes.
Whether signing provides an additional cognitive boost beyond what responsive interaction alone delivers is still an open question, but the combination is hard to argue against. What’s clear from two decades of research is that signing carries no risk and meaningful potential upside, particularly for children who are slower to develop verbal language. For parents willing to invest a few months of consistent, low-pressure practice, baby sign language offers something rare in early childhood: a tool that’s simple, free, evidence-supported, and — when that first sign finally appears — genuinely rewarding.
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