Many parents are starting to teach their babies sign language as a way to communicate with them. There are many benefits to teaching your baby sign language. For example if they want milk they can sign “milk” and you know how to respond accordingly. Most babies are able to imitate signs as early as 8 or 9 months of age which means you can begin fairly early on. Can a baby actually learn sign language and does it work?

We decided to try it for a month on my niece. She is 10 months old and tends to be a screamer. Every time we handed her milk we would sign it and say “milk” out loud so she would understand what we were giving her. We did that for a week then we realized she may need a little more help and began signing milk, saying it, and then telling her to do it. By the end of the month we would prepare the cup and she would immediately begin signing milk and making sounds. We assume the sounds are her way of trying to say milk because we kept saying it every time we signed it.

All in all it was a success, it has been two months since we started and my niece still signs milk when she wants her cup. She has learned a lot so, in my opinion, I think signing can be a very useful tool. For more information you can check out site like Aslpro or Handspeak for more information.