Baby Sign: what it consists of 2026

If you are one of those people who are aware of social networks and tend to follow the recommendations made by some influencers and celebrities about their experience with motherhood, it is likely that you have seen several of them lately, such as Laura Escanes, sign language for babies. Of Anglo-Saxon origin, this technique is also known by its name in English, baby sign, whose history we delved into a few days ago, and more and more parents are encouraged to learn it first and put it into practice with their children later. We tell you what it is and why it is gaining so much momentum.

As its name indicates, baby sign language is a communication tool that is used as a prior step to the development of speech with children from six or seven months. It is evident that hands are the first form of communication that babies discover and use after crying and facial gestures, but it is not always easy to understand what they want through this dual means. This is where the baby sign comes into action, a much more accurate tool than crying because each gesture that the baby is taught to do with their hands has an exclusive meaning. This, in addition to strengthening the bond between parents and children, improves communication between both parties without having to guess what the child wants, which will avoid many frustrations in both adults and newborns.

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Children learn by imitation, so it is relatively easy for them to understand what the communication tool that their parents want to teach them consists of, and there is no scientific evidence that points to a delay in speech due to communicating with signs, which is one of the first doubts that usually come to mind when hearing or reading about this method for the first time. What's more, many experts agree that it improves your motor skills, which positively affects your ability to speak.

How to use this method with your child

Vanessa Viaji, certified instructor in sign language for babies and founder of "Talk to Me with Hands", explains on her website the importance for the effectiveness of the method of starting to teach the little ones early, as soon as their brain is prepared:  “The sooner you start teaching, the sooner your baby will start doing them and the more vocabulary he or she will learn. The right time is between six and eight months, as this is the time when your baby's brain begins to develop long-term memory. and their fine motor skills.”

For them to learn it, it is enough to say the word at the same time that the sign that means said concept in sign language is executed. Immediately afterwards, it is advisable to offer him what you have mentioned so that he associates it, and as many times as the sign is repeated, now without verbal support, the ideal is to do it in a positive way, with a smile. Little by little, you will see how the little one shapes the gesture, with more and more accuracy, but it is important to reward his effort those first times when it will be a little more difficult for him to reproduce it.

As in any other area of ​​development, each child has his own rhythm, so there is no need to get upset or worry if there is a case in which it takes more time than usual to learn them. As an estimated average time, ten months is the turning point at which a baby can already return some sign to its parents. "Studies do indicate that around 10 months, babies show the first signs of interest in communicating and this is usually the moment in which the baby begins to make signs. This moment will also depend on how often the parents use the signs, as well as the amount of vocabulary used," explains Vanessa Viaji.

But before teaching it to the child, obviously, parents have to learn to handle it. It is not difficult, far from it, but the ideal is to know as many signs as possible. It is not enough to learn the four or five most useful ones, but documentation and training are two fundamental aspects to put Baby Sign into practice.

The first can be done with books that deal exclusively with the subject, including a small selection in Spanish of which “Sign Language for Babies” is a part, written by the sign language educator and interpreter Ruth Cañadas, and the second through specific courses in Baby Sign. The Háblame con las manos team structures it into six sessions with a prior introductory workshop, and Ruth Cañadas herself also provides training in this communication tool for babies. In addition, to review or learn the most common signs, you can also turn to YouTube; specifically, to channels specialized in education such as that of the neuropsychologist Álvaro Bilbao.

The effectiveness of the Baby Sign lasts for many months if you start working from the middle of the year of life of the child, since it will not be until eighteen months, at least, when he or she begins to be able to reproduce specific words to communicate. Therefore, for an entire year, both social and motor skills will have been stimulated thanks to sign language, which will also survive with spoken language for another extended stage until speech development is already in an advanced phase.