You can start teaching your baby sign language as early as 6 months old, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, when babies begin maintaining eye contact and showing interest in communication. The best developmental window for expecting real signed responses is between 10 and 14 months, though many babies begin mimicking and making their own signs as early as 6 to 9 months.
Starting early doesn’t require formal classes or special equipment—most parents simply incorporate signs into daily routines alongside spoken language, which is why pediatricians increasingly recommend it as a natural part of early language development. This article walks through the complete baby sign language schedule, from the earliest stages through age 2 when toddlers begin forming simple two-word signed phrases. You’ll learn what milestones to expect at each stage, how receptive and expressive signing develop separately, what classes cost if you choose to enroll, and what to do if you want to start signing at home without waiting for a class to begin.
Table of Contents
- When Do Babies Actually Start Signing?
- Understanding Receptive Versus Expressive Signing in Early Development
- Age-by-Age Signing Milestones from 6 Months to 2 Years
- Formal Classes Versus Home Practice—Cost and Scheduling Considerations
- Common Misconceptions and Red Flags in Baby Sign Language Development
- Building a Home Signing Practice Without Formal Instruction
- Long-Term Language Development and When to Advance
- Conclusion
When Do Babies Actually Start Signing?
Most new parents have a misconception that babies need to be “ready” to sign at some magic age, but developmental research shows signing follows the same timeline as any other form language development. Babies begin demonstrating interest in your hand movements and facial expressions around 6 months, the same age they’re watching your mouth to learn speech sounds. By 6 to 9 months, babies typically start making their own signs—not intentional words yet, but the hand shapes and movements that resemble actual signs. This is similar to how babies make babbling sounds that aren’t words but contain the phonetic building blocks of language.
The meaningful difference happens at 8 to 9 months, when babies begin making signs *in response* to your signing, though these responses are still mostly imitation rather than comprehension. By 10 to 14 months, most babies start actually understanding what your signs mean and signing back with intentional communication—they sign “more” because they want more food, not just because they’re copying your hands. This varies significantly between babies, so a child who signs independently at 7 months isn’t ahead of the curve; similarly, a 15-month-old who hasn’t signed yet isn’t behind. The 10 to 14 month window is when most babies click into intentional signing, but the range is wider than many sources suggest.
Understanding Receptive Versus Expressive Signing in Early Development
Your baby will understand signs long before they use them, just as they understand spoken words before speaking. By 12 months old, babies’ receptive language—what they understand when you sign to them—expands significantly. This means a 1-year-old might understand when you sign “more,” “milk,” “mama,” and “papa,” but may not yet produce those signs consistently themselves. This gap between understanding and doing is normal and necessary; your baby’s brain is processing the visual-motor patterns, analyzing hand shapes and positions, before their fine motor control develops enough to produce them accurately.
However, this receptive understanding doesn’t mean your baby is learning only through passive observation. Babies learn language through interactive back-and-forth, not from watching videos or from you signing while they play independently. Research shows that babies learn signed language much more effectively during face-to-face interactions where you respond to their attempts—even if those attempts are rough or incomplete versions of the sign. If you only sign without engaging your baby in conversation, progress slows significantly. The sweet spot is frequent, brief signing interactions throughout the day rather than dedicated “signing time” where your baby sits and watches.
Age-by-Age Signing Milestones from 6 Months to 2 Years
Between 6 and 8 months, your baby shows interest in hand movements, tracks your signs with their eyes, and begins mimicking gestures like waving or clapping. They’re not understanding the signs yet; they’re just noticing that hands move and mimicking the motion. Around 8 to 9 months, fine motor control develops enough for babies to attempt actual sign shapes, though hand positioning and orientation will be imprecise.
Most importantly, by 10 to 14 months, babies show comprehension by responding appropriately to signs—turning toward “mama,” reaching for “more,” or shaking their head for “no.” The period from 17 to 24 months involves complex linguistic development. Around 17 to 20 months, babies develop the ability to use linguistic pointing to mean “me,” and by 22 to 24 months they can point to mean “you.” By 24 months, they can even perform third-party pointing (signing about a person or object not present). By age 2, toddlers begin combining signs into simple two-word phrases: “baby cry,” “more milk,” or “daddy work.” This progression—from observation to imitation to comprehension to first signs to phrase combinations—unfolds over about 20 months, similar to the timeline for spoken language in hearing children.
Formal Classes Versus Home Practice—Cost and Scheduling Considerations
If you want structured instruction, several class-based options exist with different price points and formats. Baby Garten Studio offers 8-week sessions at $225 per session with three levels available, so a full introductory program costs roughly $225 to $675 depending on how many sessions you enroll in. San Diego Baby Sign Language Classes offer three eight-week sessions with options for Friday/Saturday classes or Tuesday/Wednesday, so you can choose based on your schedule. In New York City, one-day workshops start at $50, though most parents find five-session introductions more practical than single-day intensive workshops for actually retaining what you learn. The trade-off between home practice and formal classes isn’t a matter of effectiveness—babies learn sign language just as well at home with signed conversations as they do in classes.
The advantage of classes is accountability, exposure to other signing families, and getting correction from someone who can evaluate whether you’re signing correctly. If you’re committed to daily home practice without classes, your baby can reach all the same milestones. However, if your signing is inconsistent or inaccurate, your baby will learn inconsistent or inaccurate signs, and you may not realize the problem until later. Classes offer a quality-control benefit, not a necessity benefit. Providers like Baby Fingers offer both in-person classes in Los Angeles and New York and Zoom classes for families elsewhere, so geography isn’t necessarily a barrier.
Common Misconceptions and Red Flags in Baby Sign Language Development
One persistent myth is that starting sign language will confuse babies or delay their spoken language development. Research conclusively shows this is false—bilingual children (sign and spoken language, or two spoken languages) have slightly larger vocabularies overall and no delay in either language. Another common concern is that Deaf signing adults will criticize parents for signing imperfectly. Some will, but many Deaf community members appreciate that hearing parents are learning their language at all, imperfection included. What matters more is whether you’re providing consistent, interactive signing input to your child.
The real red flag isn’t imperfect signing; it’s inconsistent input or signing only during designated “sign time” rather than throughout daily routines. If you sign “milk” at breakfast but don’t sign it at other meals, your baby learns “milk” is something special that only happens sometimes. When you sign consistently across all contexts—meal times, bath time, bedtime, play time—signing becomes normalized as just part of how your family communicates. Another caution: if you’re signing because you think it will teach your hearing baby to communicate faster than spoken language alone, reset that expectation. Signed and spoken language develop on essentially the same timeline. The benefit of sign language isn’t speed; it’s giving your baby a visual language option that doesn’t depend on hearing.
Building a Home Signing Practice Without Formal Instruction
If you’re learning sign language from YouTube videos or books before teaching your baby, expect a significant learning curve. Most parents find it takes 20 to 40 hours of study to sign common early childhood vocabulary accurately and fluently enough that it feels natural during interactions. This is why many parents prefer classes—the teacher models proper signing and you can ask questions about hand shape, positioning, and movement in real time. If you choose to self-teach, start with a core vocabulary of 20 to 30 essential signs: mama, daddy, milk, more, all-done, sleep, play, eat, help, thank you, please, yes, no, and favorite foods or activities specific to your child.
Practice these core signs consistently for at least two weeks before adding new vocabulary. Record videos of yourself signing to check your hand shapes and positioning against reference materials. The most common errors parents make are moving signs in the wrong location on the body, using the wrong hand shape, or failing to use facial expressions that are grammatically essential in American Sign Language. Your baby will learn whatever you model, including errors, so accuracy matters more when you’re self-teaching than when you have feedback from a teacher. Once your baby starts signing back, you’ll quickly discover which signs they understood (and possibly improved) and which ones you need to refine.
Long-Term Language Development and When to Advance
If your baby is signing consistently by 18 to 24 months and you want to continue developing their signing skills beyond basic home communication, you’re at the point where formal classes become more valuable. Parent-child classes work well through age 2, but by 2.5 to 3 years old, many programs transition to classes where the child participates more independently rather than relying entirely on parent modeling. At this point, exposure to other signing children and Deaf adults becomes more significant, as children benefit from seeing signing as a communication method used by a broader community, not just their parents. This is also where you should assess whether you want your child to pursue sign language as a full, rich language (which requires consistent input from native signers or classes throughout childhood) or as a supplementary communication tool within your family.
Both are valid choices. Some families view signing as a temporary bridge until spoken language fully develops, while others see it as an ongoing language skill. That choice—made around age 2 to 3—affects how much additional instruction you’ll seek and how many hours per week your child engages with signing. There’s no “right” choice, but the choice determines what resources and classes you’ll need moving forward.
Conclusion
The baby sign language schedule doesn’t require waiting for a specific age or enrolling in classes before you begin. You can start incorporating signs into daily interactions as early as 6 months when your baby shows interest in watching your hands and faces. Expect your baby to begin responding intentionally to your signs by 10 to 14 months, though the timeline varies, and by age 2, most toddlers begin combining signs into short phrases.
Formal classes cost between $50 and $225 per 8-week session depending on your location and provider, and they offer the advantage of consistent instruction and community, but home-based signing practice achieves the same language milestones if you commit to regular, interactive signing. Start with whatever approach feels sustainable for your family—whether that’s finding a Baby Fingers class near you, joining a San Diego Baby Sign Language group, or simply learning 20 essential signs at home. The most important factor isn’t the method but consistency: signing throughout daily routines, responding to your baby’s attempts, and treating sign language as a genuine communication tool rather than a special activity. From there, your baby’s language development will follow a predictable trajectory from imitation to comprehension to first signs to early phrases, reaching the same milestones that spoken language learners reach on a similar timeline.