Most experts recommend starting with just four to five baby signs, then adding another four to five once your child has those down. That is the short answer, but the real number depends on your baby’s age, temperament, and how consistently you use the signs at home. A parent who introduces “milk,” “more,” and “all done” during meals and sticks with those three for a few weeks will see faster results than someone who tries to teach fifteen signs at once and uses them sporadically.
The AAP’s HealthyChildren.org lists approximately 34 recommended signs overall, but nobody expects you to roll those out on day one. This article breaks down exactly how many signs to teach at each stage, what the research says about signing and language development, which starter signs get the best results, and how to know when your baby is ready for more. We will also look at some of the claimed benefits of baby sign language and where the science is solid versus where it gets shaky.
Table of Contents
- How Many Baby Signs Should You Start Teaching at Each Age?
- What Are the Best First Signs to Teach Your Baby?
- What Does the Research Actually Say About Baby Signing?
- How to Add More Signs Without Overwhelming Your Baby
- Common Mistakes That Slow Down Baby Sign Language Progress
- Does Baby Signing Really Reduce Tantrums and Build Bonding?
- Building a Long-Term Signing Vocabulary That Transitions to Speech
- Conclusion
- Frequently Asked Questions
How Many Baby Signs Should You Start Teaching at Each Age?
The number of signs you teach should match your child’s developmental stage, not an arbitrary list you found online. The AAP recommends starting around six months old, and most parents begin somewhere between five and seven months. At this stage, four to five high-frequency signs are plenty. Think of signs your baby encounters multiple times a day: milk, eat, more, all done, and help. These cover the basics of feeding, requesting, and communicating discomfort, which is where most pre-verbal frustration lives. By eight months, babies can typically produce about three signs.
By twelve to fourteen months, many babies can use as many as ten. Between twelve and eighteen months, a toddler’s sign language vocabulary can really start to take off, with children able to learn new signs within minutes or days rather than the weeks it took earlier. So the progression looks something like this: start with four to five signs around six months, expect your baby to sign back a few of those by eight to ten months, and then begin expanding the vocabulary once they are consistently using the first batch. One common mistake is comparing your child’s progress to a timeline chart and panicking. Babies typically produce their first sign between eight and twelve months, though some may sign back as early as six months. If your ten-month-old is not signing yet, that does not mean it is not working. It means they are still in the receptive phase, understanding the signs even if they are not producing them.
What Are the Best First Signs to Teach Your Baby?
Different sources recommend slightly different starter lists, but there is significant overlap. Today’s Parent recommends eight core signs as the essentials: more, all done, eat, milk, water, hurt, help, and sleepy. Baby Sign Language’s top ten starter signs, chosen for ease of use and daily frequency, are milk, eat, more, all done, bed, dog, light, ball, book, and car. Tinyhood recommends eleven first signs. The differences between these lists are less important than the principle behind them: pick signs that map onto things your child encounters repeatedly throughout the day. The best starter signs share three qualities. First, they are functional, meaning your baby actually needs them to communicate a want or need.
“Milk” and “eat” beat “elephant” every time. Second, they are frequent, meaning you will have dozens of natural opportunities to model them daily. Third, they are visually distinct from each other, so your baby does not confuse similar hand shapes. A parent who picks “more,” “milk,” “all done,” and “eat” has covered mealtime communication almost entirely, and mealtimes happen three or more times a day, which means built-in repetition. However, if your child is twelve months or older and already babbling or attempting words, you might start with a slightly larger set. The Bump lists twenty-nine baby signs as a comprehensive set, and the AAP’s HealthyChildren.org resource includes around thirty-four, covering categories from food and family to feelings and activities. These larger lists are not meant to be taught all at once. They are reference libraries you can draw from as your child’s capacity grows.
What Does the Research Actually Say About Baby Signing?
The most frequently cited study comes from Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn at UC Davis. Starting in the 1980s, they followed thirty-two families who taught signing from eleven months of age. The signing children had bigger vocabularies and used longer sentences by age two compared to non-signing peers. A follow-up at age eight found that signing children scored an average of twelve IQ points higher than non-signing peers. That second claim gets repeated constantly in baby sign language marketing, but it is worth noting that this research has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal, which means it has not been independently verified. A separate study by Meredith Rowe and Susan Goldin-Meadow looked at fifty-two typically developing children and found that the number of different concepts children represented through gestures at eighteen months predicted their vocabulary at forty-two months.
This is compelling because it suggests that gesture, including taught signs, is not just a stopgap but part of how children build language. Michigan State University Extension has also noted that no studies have shown that using signs causes a delay in spoken language development, which addresses one of the most common parental fears. Here is the caveat that rarely makes it into the promotional material. Some studies that found signing helps language development concluded that these benefits disappeared by age three. That does not mean signing is useless. It means the advantage is most pronounced during the pre-verbal and early verbal stages, which is exactly when communication frustration peaks. The long-term academic benefits remain debated in the scientific literature, even if the short-term communication benefits are well supported.
How to Add More Signs Without Overwhelming Your Baby
The practical question most parents face is not whether to sign but how to pace the expansion. Start with your four to five core signs and use them for at least two to three weeks before adding new ones. Repetition and consistency are the most important factors, not the total number of signs taught. A child who sees “more” modeled fifty times during meals over two weeks is far more likely to sign it back than a child who has been shown twelve different signs three times each. There is a real tradeoff between breadth and depth. Going wide with many signs means your baby gets exposure to a larger vocabulary but may take longer to produce any individual sign. Going deep with a few signs means faster production but a narrower communication range.
Most speech-language pathologists lean toward depth first, then breadth. Once your baby is actively using three to five signs and seems to pick up new ones within a few days rather than weeks, you are in the expansion phase. At that point you can introduce signs in categories: a few animal signs, a few emotion signs, a few activity signs. Always say the word aloud while signing. This is not optional. The Cleveland Clinic emphasizes that signing should supplement speech, not replace it. Every time you sign “milk,” say “milk.” Every time you sign “all done,” say “all done.” The sign is a bridge to the spoken word, and if you build the bridge without the destination, you have defeated the purpose.
Common Mistakes That Slow Down Baby Sign Language Progress
The most frequent mistake is inconsistency. A parent who signs “eat” at breakfast on Monday but forgets for the rest of the week is essentially starting over each time. Pathways.org identifies repetition and consistency as the most important factors in successful baby signing. If you cannot commit to using a sign multiple times a day, every day, do not add it to your active list yet. It is better to use three signs religiously than eight signs occasionally. The second mistake is expecting too much too soon. Parents read that babies can sign back by six months, try it for two weeks, see nothing, and quit. But the typical range for a first sign is eight to twelve months.
That means you might model signs for two to four months before your baby produces one. This is normal. Your baby is learning during that silent period, building the motor skills and the cognitive connection between the sign, the word, and the object. A subtler problem is sign confusion. If you teach signs that look too similar from a baby’s perspective, they may merge them into one gesture or avoid both. Babies do not have the fine motor control adults have, so signs that require precise finger positions may come out looking identical. When your baby produces an approximation of a sign, accept it and reinforce it. Insisting on perfect form is like insisting a twelve-month-old pronounce “water” correctly instead of accepting “wa-wa.”.
Does Baby Signing Really Reduce Tantrums and Build Bonding?
The claim that baby signing reduces tantrums, increases self-esteem, and decreases frustration is widely promoted but supported by limited scientific evidence. A study from UTEP’s scholarly works found that while these claims are common in popular media, the controlled research backing them is thin. That said, the NIH-funded INSIGHT study found that parents who used baby sign language reported greater ability to understand their child and described richer communication and more positive interactions.
The distinction matters: we have decent evidence that signing improves the parent’s experience of communication, even if the direct effect on tantrum frequency is harder to measure. More recently, Indiana University published research in February 2025 titled “Signs of Success: How Baby Sign Language Boosts Early Literacy Skills,” drawing a connection between early signing and literacy development. This adds another dimension to the conversation beyond just pre-verbal communication, suggesting that the motor and cognitive patterns involved in signing may support reading readiness down the line.
Building a Long-Term Signing Vocabulary That Transitions to Speech
The endgame of baby sign language is not a child who signs forever. It is a child who speaks, with signing as the scaffolding that got them there. As your toddler’s spoken vocabulary grows between eighteen and twenty-four months, you will notice them dropping signs in favor of words. This is exactly what should happen.
Some families continue signing for words their toddler cannot yet pronounce clearly, which keeps frustration low during the transition period. Looking forward, the research connecting gesture to language development suggests that the physical act of signing may strengthen neural pathways that support verbal communication. Families who view signing as a temporary communication tool rather than a permanent system tend to have the healthiest expectations and the best outcomes. Whether you teach five signs or fifty, the value is in the daily, consistent, spoken-and-signed interactions, not in hitting a number.
Conclusion
Start with four to five functional, high-frequency signs like milk, more, eat, all done, and help. Introduce them around six months, model them consistently with the spoken word every time, and expect your baby to sign back somewhere between eight and twelve months. Once those first signs are solid, add another batch of four to five, and continue expanding as your child shows readiness.
The AAP’s full list of around thirty-four signs is a reference, not a checklist to rush through. The research supports real but modest benefits: improved early vocabulary, better parent-child communication, and no risk of language delay. Some benefits may fade by age three, and the more dramatic claims about IQ and tantrum reduction lack strong peer-reviewed backing. What is well established is that consistent, repetitive signing paired with speech gives pre-verbal children a way to communicate their needs, and that alone makes it worth doing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I teach too many signs at once?
Yes. Introducing too many signs before your baby has mastered the first few leads to inconsistent modeling and slower acquisition. Stick with four to five until your baby is actively using at least two or three, then expand.
Will baby sign language delay my child’s speech?
No. No studies have shown that using signs causes a delay in spoken language development. As long as you always say the word aloud while signing, you are reinforcing speech, not replacing it.
What if my baby is not signing back after a month?
This is normal. Babies typically produce their first sign between eight and twelve months. If you started at six months, you may wait two to four months before seeing a sign. Continue modeling consistently.
Should I use ASL signs or made-up signs?
Most experts recommend using ASL-based signs for consistency, since resources, classes, and caregivers are more likely to recognize them. Made-up signs can work within your household but do not transfer to other settings.
At what age should I stop signing with my child?
There is no hard cutoff. Most children naturally drop signs as their spoken vocabulary grows between eighteen and twenty-four months. You can continue signing for words they struggle to pronounce until speech fully takes over.