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Babies can begin using basic baby sign language as early as 6 months. Here are the words experts say to teach them first.
ByLexi Walters
Updated on January 31, 2024
Did you know that babies typically begin talking around 13 to 18 months old? That may seem like a long time to wait for this exciting milestone, but talking isn't the only form of communication your baby can learn. If you're eager for communication beyond cries, grunts, and body language, you're in luck because babies as young as 4 months can start to understand baby sign language, and by 6 months, many can begin signing themselves.
What Is Baby Sign Language?
Baby sign language borrows certain words from American Sign Language (ASL) to help parents and babies communicate specific needs such as hunger or sleepiness. Babies are not learning ASL as a full, rich language, but they can use key ASL signs to let you know their immediate needs, wants, and observations.For example, they'll be able to see or want something, such as their parent or food, and then convey that to their caregiver.
Read on to learn 10 basic signs to teach your baby along with the benefits of baby sign language and how to teach it. Go ahead: Give your baby something to talk about!
01of 10
Mommy
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How to sign it: Spread out your fingers on one hand perpendicularly in front of your face. Then touch the thumb of that hand to the side of your chin several times.
02of 10
Daddy
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How to sign it: Spread out your fingers on one hand, then touch the thumb of that hand to the side of your forehead several times.
03of 10
Milk
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How to sign it: Close your fingers into a fist with one hand and hold it in front of your chest like you're holding a bottle.
04of 10
Eat
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How to sign it: Squeeze the tips of your fingers together to form a point, and place that hand in front of pursed lips. Bring your hand away from your mouth, then back to it.
Editor's Note
Research finds that baby sign language is most often used to convey words relating to eating, such as "more," "all done," "milk," and "eat." Using signs can help you know when your baby is hungry or full. Studies show that signing with your baby increases parental responsiveness to your baby's hunger (and other) cues and strengthens the parent-child bond.
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05of 10
More
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How to sign it: Squeeze together the tips of your fingers on each hand to form two points. Touch the tips of each point together, then separate and repeat a few times.
06of 10
Again
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How to sign it: Open the palm of one hand and curve the fingers of the other. Starting with your hands apart, bring your fingertips across your body and tap the open hand, then repeat.
07of 10
Sleep
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How to sign it: Place one hand in front of your face, palm facing toward you. Close your hand to a fist and drop in to your chin, closing your eyes. Drag that fist downward, eyes still closed.
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08of 10
Cold
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How to sign it: With your shoulders slightly raised, clench both hands in front of your body, by your shoulders. (You can shiver a little bit, too, for effect.)
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09of 10
Bath
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How to sign it: Close your hands and hold them in front of your chest. Move them up and down in alternating directions as if you're scrubbing your body.
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10of 10
Bye-Bye
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How to sign it: With fingers bent, wave your open palm from side to side next to your shoulder.
How To Teach Your Baby Sign Language
Patience and practice are key to communication and language development. Every baby is different but expect it to take lots of repetition before your baby is effectively signing. Go slowly as you perform the signs for your baby. Do the signs in context. For example, make the sign for "milk" before and during a feeding. It can also help to say the word you are signing at the same time to help reinforce meaning.
Start with just a few words at a time to help cement the motions into memory. Once your baby masters these everyday words, you can add more signs to expand their vocabulary.
Benefits of Baby Sign Language
A primary benefit of teaching your little one baby sign language is that it helps you and your baby communicate more effectively. In the first year of life, babies are particularly attuned to picking up language, both verbal and sign language. Amazingly, studies show that 4-month-old babies can begin to understand sign language and can distinguish between random hand gestures and signing.
Additionally, babies who sign might learn to talk earlier. Studies show that learning to sign does not delay talking. Instead, researchers believe communicative gestures are an important precursor to verbal language development. So, signing may actually encourage your baby to speak and bolster their language skills.
Plus, learning to sign together is fun!
Key Takeaways
Teaching your baby sign language can help your little one communicate with you before learning to talk. It's also a fun bonding activity. Give your baby plenty of time to pick up on these signs. Once they do, you can add more helpful or fun signs to the repertoire. Contact your baby's doctor if you have any questions or concerns about their communication and language development.
Updated byDean Schoeppner
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Sources
Parents uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Exploring infant signing to enhance responsive parenting: Findings from the INSIGHT study. Matern Child Nutr. 2019.
I See What You Are Saying: Hearing Infants' Visual Attention and Social Engagement in Response to Spoken and Sign Language. Front Psychol. 2022.
Language as a multimodal phenomenon: implications for language learning, processing and evolution. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. 2014.
