Sign Language for Babies and Young Children

This topical guide will introduce you to important books, videos, and information resources available from the EI Clearinghouse and other sources.

Sign language is a great way to communicate with kids. These beginner-friendly cards make ASL simple to learn and teach kids with helpful signs and fun ways to practice.

In this new edition, more than 300 ASL signs are provided along with songs, games, and signing techniques.

This illustrated guide explains ways to teach babies simple sign language. Pictures illustrate the suggested signs.

This book provides practical, effective tools to teach your baby relevant signs such as “more,” “all done,” “milk,” and others, all while having fun.

Using trusted American Sign Language (ASL), this book is the go-to guide for parents, caregivers, and educators looking to create effective two-way communication.

This book contains 50 of the most useful ASL signs with step-by-step color illustrations and videos for every sign.

Learn sign language alongside your baby with an adorable storybook designed to encourage you to learn new words and signs as you read together. 

This guide helps parents teach basic signs to their babies. It includes an explanation of how baby signing developed and how it can be used effectively.

This book demonstrates playful sign language activities parents can use to interest their babies in learning to sign. It recommends ways to include signing in everyday activities.

This book helps teachers use and teach sign language to hearing children up to age 6. The book is organized by the age of the child. One chapter focuses on the use of sign language with children who have special needs.

This book shows early childhood professionals how to teach sign language skills through music and play during everyday classroom routines.

This book features photographs of the 200 most useful signs and features stage-by-stage guidance, so you’ll know which signs to teach first and which to add your baby progresses.

This book features over 1000 ASL sign drawings paired with colorful illustrations. It explains how to sign and fingerspell, has a complete index of English terms for each sign, sample sentences, and more.

Presents easy-to-follow ASL vocabulary in the following areas of daily function: actions and verbs; clothes; states and cities; food and drinks; and transportation. Includes exercises for using the newly learned vocabulary in sentences.

Presents easy-to-follow ASL vocabulary in the following areas of daily function: actions and verbs; clothes; states and cities; food and drinks; and transportation. Includes exercises for using the newly learned vocabulary in sentences.

This video includes over 150 words and phrases containing the sounds T, D, & N; higher level concepts including compound words, 2-4 word phrases, and question words; tutorial that teaches parents speech techniques to practice at home; therapists demonstrating T, D, & N sounds and words; and common sign language which enhances communication skills.

This video covers: essentials, potty training, animals, body, clothes, colors, descriptors, feelings, food, people, letters, numbers, actions, vehicles and more.

For ages 10 months & up.

Gives parents and babies the ability to bridge the gap between the time a baby can communicate with his/her hands and the time a baby can speak. This video includes some of the first words that are most loved by babies, focusing on objects and events that babies are naturally attracted to, such as “book,” “car,” “cat,” “drink,” “eat,”, “go,” “milk,” and more.

This video uses a combination of American Sign Language signs, spoken word, written text, still images, animation, live video, and sound effects to hold a baby’s attention while teaching signs.

This DVD shows parents and educators how to teach signing by the use of songs to babies or children, including those with special needs.

This is the first of 13 volumes in a series. Songs, animation, and visuals are used to teach signs for phrases such as “My name is …” Other volumes in this series are related to days of the week, sports, helping, and more.

This agency helps families, health care providers and education professionals understand childhood hearing loss and the importance of early diagnosis and intervention.

This parent-driven, non-profit organization supports families with children who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing without a bias around communication modes or methodologies.

Part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the NIDCD supports biomedical research into hearing and communication disorders. The NIDCD site contains a great deal of information for professionals, including consumer health information, the latest research, and grant and funding opportunities.

This article discusses the pros and cons of teaching sign language in addition to teaching oral language. Experts in otolaryngology and language development are the contributors.

Helping young deaf and hard of hearing children explore ASL and English is one of the important jobs with which the preschool teachers who work with those children are tasked. Learning ASL and English, the children will become bilingual, fluent in the two languages they will use throughout their lives.

This online article defines baby signing, outlines the research on the language development of babies who are taught signing, and provides suggestions for the effective use of signing.

Receptive language refers to how well children understand language. Children spend their first year listening to the sounds around them. Sign language can be used to communicate and helps ease frustrations in young children when they lack the ability to use words.

This free, 7-module resource was developed to foster an understanding of the importance of early language acquisition that supports robust linguistic competence and conceptual development in children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

This video series features Rachel, Leah, Alex, and Hopkins and combines sign-along songs, animation and the positive reinforcement of signing babies all age 2 and under.

This online article from the American Academy of Pediatrics includes reasons to teach a baby to sign and tips for getting started.