At 17 months, I decided to record all of the words that my baby could say. There were 59 of them. At the same time, his signing vocabulary was 128 words strong! While both his signs and spoken words continue to increase, this week marked the first that he spoke more new words than learned new signs. He is just over 18 months old.
So for an entire year (from 6 months old), signing has been my baby’s primary way to communicate with us. Just think of how much more he’s been able to tell us and ask us before he could verbally articulate his interests and desires. I am equally excited when he does a new sign as when he speaks a new word because either way, it’s making life a whole lot easier and more interesting for him and my husband and me.
Whether he will drop signs or continue to use them as he learns to say the words remains to be seen. My guess is that he might do a little of both, at least until his articulation improves. I plan to continue signing and saying the words, modeling both to him as I have been.