Baby
Talk Sign Language
Workshops & Play Classes For Little Hands,
Parents, and Caregivers
Your Baby Can Talk Before She Can Speak
While all hearing children begin the journey toward spoken language development at birth, it takes children between 12 to 24 months to begin "mastering" the sound and intonation patterns of English, and then to begin applying this mastery to the production of basic words and sentences.
Because the gross motor abilities required for signing develop months, sometimes years, earlier than the equivalent fine motor skills required for speech, children can begin to sign very early in development.
At the same time that infants and toddlers are learning and practicing the sound patterns for English, they can use linguistic hand and body movements to communicate needs, ideas, and thoughts from as early as five months.
Why sign with hearing babies and toddlers?
- Children can begin signing from as early as 5 months old.1
- While the average 8 month old will have no spoken words, the average Signing Smart™ child will have 5 signs.1
- While the average 12 month old will have 3-5 spoken words, the average Signing Smart™ child will have 25 signs and 16 words.1
- Hearing signing babies show less frustration and decreased aggressive behavior in childcare settings.2
- A study funded by the NIH demonstrates that by age 4, hearing children who used signs as infants and toddlers are linguistically and cognitively advanced, compared to hearing children who did not sign.3