Signing with babies helps relieve frustration and stress of the first couple of years of a baby’s life. Their brains are developing rapidly, but their vocal skills take months to come on line. Even a few signs - just a handful - can make a big difference.

Before baby can talk, sometimes it is very hard to understand what them - since pointing and early sounds are not always easy to figure out. Not only do children think about things you wouldn’t expect - but they can also tell you of things they remember from days or weeks ago, even before they have the words to do so.

Giving babies the ability to express needs and wants at an early age helps them understand the give and take of interactions. Early language depends on frequent “serve and return” speaking interactions. Babies who sign are able to serve and return effectively even before they make full words.

What is the right age to start baby sign language? The short answer: When YOU, the parent, are ready.

Here’s a longer answer: I use the 6 months as a general rule of thumb, but rules (and thumbs) are made to be bent.  Every baby is different and every family is different.

In my Words by the Handful classes, I have had students as young as 5 weeks, and as old as 3 years old.  Those are the outliers, but signs work for outliers, too.

Why Start Baby Sign Language At Six Months? At 6 months of age, the size of a baby’s memory is getting large enough to begin to assimilate signs. The uptake of signs will be a little easier for them at 6 months than at a younger age.

Somewhere around 9 - 10 months babies tend to start reaching and pointing. This is a good indicator that baby’s fine/gross motor skills are coming on line, and their ability to begin making the signs is increasing.

Receptive (understanding) language comes before expressive (making) language. Parents can start signing at any time. The earlier parents begin signing with their babies, the longer the parents will have to wait before baby begins to sign back. So if you start at 3 months, don’t expect signs to show up in a couple of weeks. On the other hand, if you start at 15 months, you’ve missed a lot of early communication time, but signs will come back to you a little more quickly.

Like many things in early childhood, waiting for results can be frustrating and discouraging, and I’ve seen some parents give up on signing before their kids begin to sign back. Baby sign language is a very rewarding and nurturing tool, so I encourage parents to pick the time frame that helps signing work best for them.

You don’t need to wait until babies can readily sign back to begin signing with them.  We don’t wait until our children can speak to begin speaking with them.  Just as with spoken language, the sooner you bring signs into a baby’s life, the sooner they can start making the connections between words, signs, and the corresponding activity – the meaning.

When to start? What works for your family? Reach out to me if you want to talk about your child’s specific situation.