No time at all. In fact, you shouldn’t set any time aside for signing period. Signing is something that is done throughout your daily routine and is really no different than speaking with your baby. Anytime you talk to your baby, you sign to them. It’s not much more complicated that this.
Parents often think that signing is going to take a big bite out of their day, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, once you know the various rules and techniques that are part of signing with your hearing baby and learn a few signs, there’s not much else to do but incorporate them into your routine. Before you start to sign, learning about the various pitfalls and how to troubleshoot issues is highly advised. You’ll also need to digest 5-10 signs and have a good sign language dictionary handy to add more signs as your baby adopts them.
What I will say though, is that signing does not require a huge ongoing time commitment once you understand how and why signing works – just add it to your daily routine!