Take up signing too late is very common concern.  Many parents think that an 18 month old is too late on the scene to learn and benefit from signing.  This couldn’t be further from the truth.  Let me ask, does your 18 month or 20 month old speak fluently?  Does your baby speak all the words they want, and need to?  Does your baby throw temper tantrums out of frustration because they can’t express themselves?  If the answer is no to the first two questions and yes to the last, then your baby can still use signs.

The fact of the matter is that signs can be taught to an older baby much easier than a younger baby.  This makes teaching an important word, a word that your baby wants to use, simple.  There’s no reason to let your baby struggle to make their thoughts known verbally when teaching them a sign can be done in just a few seconds.

In addition, the research is clear that even babies taught to sign later on can benefit long term from the use of signs, just as younger babies do.  Signing works more of the brain and so language centers are enhanced and this is independent of age.  The benchmark is that babies as old as 3 can use signs to their advantage.  So if you have a baby under 3, strongly consider teaching them to sign.  While it might not form the bulk of the words they say, the signs they do learn will help them clarify their thoughts and grow their vocabulary.

There are a few main reasons.  For one, your baby’s muscular coordination is still in the works.  While the hands and feet are being progressively more refined in their controlled, the muscles required to control the vocal cords require even more refinement before they produce intelligible language.  The fact is that it requires a lot of coordination to say words such as the movement made by the tongue, lips, mouth, and lungs.  However, to make signs, a baby can do much simpler movements.  This isn’t to say that a baby will make perfect sign or one even a complicated one, it just means that they can get away with sign approximations much sooner than they can get away with speaking.

At first your baby will use grunts, and squeals, and might point to help show others what they want.  However, this grunting and pointing can be refined using more abstract associated signs like bringing the fingertips together for MORE, or twisting the closed fist against the cheek for APPLE.  In fact, baby’s as young as 4 months old have been known to understand signs and babies as young as 6 months have been shown to be able to use signs to request specific things.

So while non-signing babies are left pointing and grunting, signing babies can make specific requests.  So while non-signing babies might be poorly understood, signing babies can make their wants and needs made perfectly clear.  This produces more confident children and parents!