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Baby Sign Language Basics: Early Communication for Hearing Babies and Toddlers, Original Diaper Bag Edition
Why are thousands of hearing parents signing with their hearing babies? According to a long-term study at UC Davis, funded by the National Institutes of Health, signing • talk sooner and have larger vocabularies • have stronger parent/child bonds • have less frustration, crying and tantrums • show more interest in books • engage in more sophisticated play • have increased IQ scores Signing also increases baby’s self-esteem and gives parents a window into their child’s mind and personality. In Baby Sign Language Basics, parents will learn 60 baby-friendly American Sign Language signs. Baby-specific signing techniques, songs, and games are included to make learning fun and easy, and also open up two-way communication quickly. Baby Sign Language Basics is the perfect baby sign language book for new parents. After all, what parent doesn’t want to know what their baby is trying to tell them? (And the book is even small enough for the diaper bag!)
128 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2004
123 people are currently reading
210 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
November 15, 2025
Years ago, when my oldest was born, I learned about signing with hearing babies as a way to give them the tools to communicate before their oral language abilities were developed. I felt like it made such good sense, since they're such smart little cookies and can understand so much, long before they are able to speak. I think my resources at the time consisted of articles in parenting magazines and "The Everything Baby Book" or some such title. Once I read a little about the concept, I knew I wanted to sign with my babies.
Present day, I picked up this book solely for the signing dictionary it contains. I'm rusty and had forgotten most of the signs.
This handy guide begins with a section of brief chapters that explains the 'why' and 'how' of signing with your baby. If you aren't so sure about it, these chapters are a great resource and make the benefits and methods clear and easy. I didn't need to be convinced but still enjoyed reading the information and it affirmed what I already believed.
There are three things that are really important to me regarding language interactions with my babies: reading aloud, singing songs, and hand signing. Admittedly, I've not learned to sign a ton of words with them, and not anything close to all the words in any given baby signing book, but using basics like please, thank you, you're welcome, more, eat, milk, water, drink, juice, I'm sorry, help, play, book, ball, baby, mommy, daddy, grandma, grandpa, sleep, blanket, yes, no, etc. have been a huge asset and have reduced crying and frustration, enriched our interactions, and given baby the means of communicating everyday things. It's been fun to learn new signs with my third which I never knew or used with my first two ('squirrel,' for instance); the dictionary in this book has been a great quick-reference guide when we've said, "Hey, I wonder what the sign for _____ is!"
I am firmly convinced that signing is a wonderful skill to acquire alongside your little ones. Usage will gradually taper off (if you do not know any deaf people) when they are able to articulate the spoken words for what they want to communicate, but we have found that some signs stick and come into play at random moments, even years later. There are times when it is useful to be able to sign across a crowded room, for example, or through a closed window, etc. It's been a handy skill even if it waned significantly.
Though an older book, this is still a good one. My goal is to learn all the signs in it this time around (we'll see). 🙂
Present day, I picked up this book solely for the signing dictionary it contains. I'm rusty and had forgotten most of the signs.
This handy guide begins with a section of brief chapters that explains the 'why' and 'how' of signing with your baby. If you aren't so sure about it, these chapters are a great resource and make the benefits and methods clear and easy. I didn't need to be convinced but still enjoyed reading the information and it affirmed what I already believed.
There are three things that are really important to me regarding language interactions with my babies: reading aloud, singing songs, and hand signing. Admittedly, I've not learned to sign a ton of words with them, and not anything close to all the words in any given baby signing book, but using basics like please, thank you, you're welcome, more, eat, milk, water, drink, juice, I'm sorry, help, play, book, ball, baby, mommy, daddy, grandma, grandpa, sleep, blanket, yes, no, etc. have been a huge asset and have reduced crying and frustration, enriched our interactions, and given baby the means of communicating everyday things. It's been fun to learn new signs with my third which I never knew or used with my first two ('squirrel,' for instance); the dictionary in this book has been a great quick-reference guide when we've said, "Hey, I wonder what the sign for _____ is!"
I am firmly convinced that signing is a wonderful skill to acquire alongside your little ones. Usage will gradually taper off (if you do not know any deaf people) when they are able to articulate the spoken words for what they want to communicate, but we have found that some signs stick and come into play at random moments, even years later. There are times when it is useful to be able to sign across a crowded room, for example, or through a closed window, etc. It's been a handy skill even if it waned significantly.
Though an older book, this is still a good one. My goal is to learn all the signs in it this time around (we'll see). 🙂
May 27, 2013
I was given two books about baby sign language, this and Baby Signing for Dummies. They have slightly different approaches and each has its strengths, but I think this is the better one.
The first half of this book contains explanations of how and why to teach baby sign language. I'm not going to list them all, but I think the fundamental argument that I find compelling is that it's way less frustrating for both a baby and parents if the baby can communicate basic needs six months or a year earlier than they would have otherwise been able to. (Essentially, the language center of the brain develops way earlier than babies have the physical dexterity in their mouths to be able to speak. If you give them a method of communication that requires less subtle muscle control, they'll learn a bunch of words and "talk" up a storm.) The fact that most kids who learn sign language end up speaking earlier and more fluently than non-signers is a bonus.
The second half of the book is a dictionary of signs containing most of what you'd want to be able to talk to a baby about--bath, meals, animals, directions, colors, numbers, weather, clothes, etc.
I found some of the first section a little twee and crunchy-granola for my taste. But it's fairly reassuring and friendly, I suppose. More importantly, the giant dictionary in the back is going to be quite helpful. It's all standard ASL--but I feel like the way you'd learn American Sign Language as an adult is not so helpful in learning it to communicate with a child. I feel like learning a new language as an adult typically does not focus on words like "milk" and "diaper" and "bubbles" and "bear", all of which are likely to be of prime importance to the average baby. On the other hand, most babies aren't going to be particularly interested in "Hi my name is" and "Do you have the time" standards adults start new language acquisition with.
It's a bit intimidating--the author talks about her kids knowing hundreds of signs. But as she points out, you only have to keep a step ahead of a baby, so surely this is doable. Surely?
The first half of this book contains explanations of how and why to teach baby sign language. I'm not going to list them all, but I think the fundamental argument that I find compelling is that it's way less frustrating for both a baby and parents if the baby can communicate basic needs six months or a year earlier than they would have otherwise been able to. (Essentially, the language center of the brain develops way earlier than babies have the physical dexterity in their mouths to be able to speak. If you give them a method of communication that requires less subtle muscle control, they'll learn a bunch of words and "talk" up a storm.) The fact that most kids who learn sign language end up speaking earlier and more fluently than non-signers is a bonus.
The second half of the book is a dictionary of signs containing most of what you'd want to be able to talk to a baby about--bath, meals, animals, directions, colors, numbers, weather, clothes, etc.
I found some of the first section a little twee and crunchy-granola for my taste. But it's fairly reassuring and friendly, I suppose. More importantly, the giant dictionary in the back is going to be quite helpful. It's all standard ASL--but I feel like the way you'd learn American Sign Language as an adult is not so helpful in learning it to communicate with a child. I feel like learning a new language as an adult typically does not focus on words like "milk" and "diaper" and "bubbles" and "bear", all of which are likely to be of prime importance to the average baby. On the other hand, most babies aren't going to be particularly interested in "Hi my name is" and "Do you have the time" standards adults start new language acquisition with.
It's a bit intimidating--the author talks about her kids knowing hundreds of signs. But as she points out, you only have to keep a step ahead of a baby, so surely this is doable. Surely?
November 19, 2024
Videos are better for sign language, but we used this with great success. I think more tantrums would have happened without it. Despite the author’s claims and starting at 3 months, signing didn’t really start until age 15 months or so.
February 26, 2025
A family member gave this book to me at my baby shower, and I’m excited to start teaching Saylor some signs! I love how this book began by sharing the benefits of teaching sign language, and how to implement it well. I have my first 7 picked out, and I’m going to try to be really consistent about it. We started with “milk” today :)
February 13, 2020
This book is a quick read and gives some basic tips about learning sign language and teaching baby. I have picked out 10-15 signs that I am going to work on. It was helpful to have that advice on how to start.
December 28, 2020
So far I've found this book to be very helpful.
December 28, 2021
The dictionary in the back is amazing!
May 27, 2015
I don't know where the #128 pages came from... This is definitely the edition I have, but the page numbering within the book goes way beyond 128. Anyhoo...
Like most of my REALLY GOOD IDEAS, I started reading this book and was all, "I'm going to teach my 10 month old every sign in this book!" Fast forward 5 months and I haven't even finished the book and I succeeded in teaching my daughter approximately 3 signs. The thing is, she's really good at getting her point across without signs, and my husband and I have always been able to figure out what she needs, so it was relatively pointless to sign everything to her. With that said (and our laziness aside) this IS an excellent reference for parents who are serious about signing with their babies and the information is presented logically, the signs are demonstrated clearly, and there are great suggestions for activities that incorporate signing into everyday activities. It is also a really handy size for slipping into a diaper bag or purse so you can carry it around as a reference. Just because signing didn't go as planned in our household doesn't mean that reading this book wasn't worth it.
My particular challenges are that I'm a working mom, and my daughter is home with my mother instead of at daycare, so my daughter did not get consistent instruction in signing. If I have been a FT WAHM, I could have been much more consistent. I also should have started signing earlier - like 6 months - and stuck with it, starting with a handful of signs and introducing a few more on a weekly basis.
We did teach my daughter the signs for milk and please, and those have been really useful. She now uses "please" to ask for something and to actually please. She claps to say "good job" or to tell us we're correct when we offer her what she was asking for. She also made up her own sign that seems to mean "I want to hug you/want you to hug me."
Learning a few basic signs from this book has also helped me to communicate with my friends' children. At a recent babywearing playdate, I was feeding my daughter a snack and a friend's son came up to me and signed "Please can I have some," "more," and "all done," and I easily recognized all three signs.
Like most of my REALLY GOOD IDEAS, I started reading this book and was all, "I'm going to teach my 10 month old every sign in this book!" Fast forward 5 months and I haven't even finished the book and I succeeded in teaching my daughter approximately 3 signs. The thing is, she's really good at getting her point across without signs, and my husband and I have always been able to figure out what she needs, so it was relatively pointless to sign everything to her. With that said (and our laziness aside) this IS an excellent reference for parents who are serious about signing with their babies and the information is presented logically, the signs are demonstrated clearly, and there are great suggestions for activities that incorporate signing into everyday activities. It is also a really handy size for slipping into a diaper bag or purse so you can carry it around as a reference. Just because signing didn't go as planned in our household doesn't mean that reading this book wasn't worth it.
My particular challenges are that I'm a working mom, and my daughter is home with my mother instead of at daycare, so my daughter did not get consistent instruction in signing. If I have been a FT WAHM, I could have been much more consistent. I also should have started signing earlier - like 6 months - and stuck with it, starting with a handful of signs and introducing a few more on a weekly basis.
We did teach my daughter the signs for milk and please, and those have been really useful. She now uses "please" to ask for something and to actually please. She claps to say "good job" or to tell us we're correct when we offer her what she was asking for. She also made up her own sign that seems to mean "I want to hug you/want you to hug me."
Learning a few basic signs from this book has also helped me to communicate with my friends' children. At a recent babywearing playdate, I was feeding my daughter a snack and a friend's son came up to me and signed "Please can I have some," "more," and "all done," and I easily recognized all three signs.
September 5, 2007
I like this book.
It's little. Compact.(You can put it in your purse or bag(~incase you forgot the sign of something)). But full of basic information for baby signing.
Just what I need to know to start using baby language with my son.
It's included the picture of how to sign in many vocabulary.
Love it!
It's little. Compact.(You can put it in your purse or bag(~incase you forgot the sign of something)). But full of basic information for baby signing.
Just what I need to know to start using baby language with my son.
It's included the picture of how to sign in many vocabulary.
Love it!
October 1, 2010
Check this out from the library - skimmed through the first few chapters to understand the logic behind teaching babies sign language, but mostly I'm using it to understand signs. Compared to a few other books I've seen, this index of signs is really useful. All of the signs are shown as photographs of an adult; other books I've seen are pencil drawings.
November 19, 2012
This book has been incredible to me. I love the idea of my child knowing sign language and also teaching it to my students. This book is easy, and basic as the title states and I would reccommend it to anyone. I would keep this in my classroom and not only use it but allow my students to look through it and learn new words that they could teach the rest of the class. Sign language is a must know!
October 19, 2021
This particular book on baby sign language has, by far, the most words than any other I skimmed through (which is great because I bought this one first before looking around). That would be about 320 words or so (I had to count by hand because nowhere did I see a number).
Right now, I'm only working on the words mommy, daddy, milk, and more. More than likely, my son won't start figuring out what I'm doing until he's 6-9 months old, and he may not sign back until at least 1 year of age (I understand that early signing is not coordinated).
He's already spoken to in English and Spanish, so it may help in learning ASL since he'll experience early childhood with 3 languages. I'm sure it will encourage him to learn at least a fourth language as a teen and onward.
Right now, I'm only working on the words mommy, daddy, milk, and more. More than likely, my son won't start figuring out what I'm doing until he's 6-9 months old, and he may not sign back until at least 1 year of age (I understand that early signing is not coordinated).
He's already spoken to in English and Spanish, so it may help in learning ASL since he'll experience early childhood with 3 languages. I'm sure it will encourage him to learn at least a fourth language as a teen and onward.
August 6, 2018
This book was a very helpful guide to getting started with signing to baby. We have been using sign language for our son and he seems to be getting the hang of it and signing things back to us even if the signs aren't exact. He seems to have picked up, All Done, and More. I wish that we would have started earlier on, but I'm excited to see where this takes us. The book is very user friendly and is easy to find a lot of the different signs that people are likely to use with babies and young toddlers.
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September 1, 2021Znakování s miminkem bych ráda zkusila. Samozřejmě je zde popisováno jako věc, bez které nelze žít a díky které budete mít nejšťastnější a nejinteligentnější miminko v okolí. Na to už bychom měli být z převážně americké self-help a teď už i parenting-help produkce zvyklí.
Nedoporučuji tuhle knížku pořizovat v e-podobě, polovinu tvoří slovník znaků a tím se v Kindlu nelistuje úplně nejpohodlněji. Navíc jsou ty znaky z amerického znakového jazyka (ASL) a nevím, nakolik jsou odlišné od českého a jak vlastně tato část v českém překladu staršího vydání vypadá.
Nedoporučuji tuhle knížku pořizovat v e-podobě, polovinu tvoří slovník znaků a tím se v Kindlu nelistuje úplně nejpohodlněji. Navíc jsou ty znaky z amerického znakového jazyka (ASL) a nevím, nakolik jsou odlišné od českého a jak vlastně tato část v českém překladu staršího vydání vypadá.
February 20, 2018
I was very surprised to find 21 chapters of text before any signs were actually shown especially when the description of this book says it "provides more than 300 American Sign Language (ASL) signs." The text takes up the first 30% of the book. I expected to get the signs quicker. Once you get to the signs, there are a ton, they are alphabetical, and the pictures are quite helpful.
I HIGHLY recommend reading this physically!
I HIGHLY recommend reading this physically!
February 12, 2026
I knew some of these already, but it was nice to get a refresher & learn more! Hoping to start these with Babe, and deepen my own understanding of ASL. I took an ASL class a couple years ago and would like to take another!
The book portion was very easy to get through, but I can't stand when authors refers future chapters, ie.) "we'll see why in the next chapter" or "keep reading to find out why).
The book portion was very easy to get through, but I can't stand when authors refers future chapters, ie.) "we'll see why in the next chapter" or "keep reading to find out why).
April 19, 2018
Really interesting! Margot knows a few signs, and last night she signed “more” when she was hungry, without being prompted. I thought this was awesome, and wanted to learn more so we could communicate even more effectively with her. Hoping this helps!
Belonging to a library is super neat to be able to just go grab a bunch of resources like this. Shout out libraries.
Belonging to a library is super neat to be able to just go grab a bunch of resources like this. Shout out libraries.
April 22, 2019
I had no interest in the portion of the book before learning the signs, because I don't know any babies to teach sign language to. I have used my classmates' copies of this book in sign language class quite a bit, because having a picture of a real person making the signs rather than an illustration can be really useful when you are having a hard time with a sign.
September 15, 2022
Review of updated 2018 version -
Great resource for families wanting to teach their baby or toddler sign language in order to facilitate communication and ease frustration during the early years.
The dictionary section is very well done- clear photos, facial expressions shown, movement drawn in, and a little sketch for each word.
Great resource for families wanting to teach their baby or toddler sign language in order to facilitate communication and ease frustration during the early years.
The dictionary section is very well done- clear photos, facial expressions shown, movement drawn in, and a little sketch for each word.
February 8, 2019
This was the first signing book I read (because it was the thickest, and I needed room on my bookshelf back). It was a good introduction to baby sign, and especially how signing fits in with parenting. Along with the signs, it also gave a lot of practical hints about how to teach the baby signing.
December 31, 2020
I have the 3rd edition which has far more pages and way more signs. Very helpful and easy to grab resource. I found that while there are so many signs for reference, it is missing quite a few common and needed ones.
January 18, 2021
I read this book as an e-book and I would recommend having a hard copy of this book. It is a great reference book for signing with your baby. It also gives tips and tricks on how to make it more effective.
July 14, 2021
The good thing about this book is that it gets straight to the point, and is not overly technical. Instead of reading like a dictionary, it straight away jumps into the commonly used signs as per the baby's age.
September 10, 2018
Very useful information.
You'd be surprised how early your little one can learn to sign!
You'd be surprised how early your little one can learn to sign!
March 21, 2019
Very, very basic.
April 7, 2021
Enjoying teaching my son and myself these!
February 8, 2022
This is a very simple, but helpful place to start to learn signing. The signs presented are clearly illustrated and just right for use with little ones.
March 28, 2023
Good introduction to signing with babies.
May 22, 2024
El mejor libro para nuevos padres
Lo mejor del mundo Mundial es un libro perfecto para nuevos padres es una muy buena lectura para nanas y papas
Lo mejor del mundo Mundial es un libro perfecto para nuevos padres es una muy buena lectura para nanas y papas
February 4, 2022
Good intro to signing with your baby. I wanted a bit more instruction of how to begin. There were only a couple pages talking about how to sign to your baby. Otherwise good book on things you can do, mistakes to watch out for, benefits, how to involve others, etc.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews