Although some believe teaching your baby to sign may delay her speech a little, there are a lot of benefits to sign language. Your baby starts noticing signs as early as six months, and she may start using sign language from the seventh or eight month itself. However, speech will still take a much longer time. A child's muscles in her hand develop before the muscles needed for speech do, and as soon as her hand muscles develop, she is ready to start communicating with you. And she needs your help to show her how she can do so.
Frustration
If she can start signing for what she wants, she will be able to express her needs instead of crying and feeling frustrated because of her inability to communicate. Trying to figure out the reason a baby is crying is like playing a guessing game. Is she hungry, or thirsty? Is she sleepy? If she can sign, she can tell you exactly what she wants before her need overwhelms her and causes her to scream. Thus a baby who can sign is likely to be more at peace.
Few words
You don't need to teach your baby a number of words. Babies have very few needs at this stage, and they essentially revolve over milk, water, food, sleep… and perhaps a few signs for her favourite toys. Teaching her just a few of these words should be enough for her to communicate most of her wants until she starts speaking.
Tips
Keep stating the word loud and clear as you make the sign, and keep signing and using the word as often as possible, everywhere you go, and every time you get a chance. Be consistent, and keep using the same sign in the same manner every time, until your baby gets it.
Don't forget to show your baby the object as well, as the word by itself may have no meaning.
Take a glass of water to your baby, let her sip it and keep saying water. As you say water, you can also show her a sign for the word. The sign should be simple enough for her to emulate, and can be something as basic as making a fist. She should be able to signal that she wants to eat by putting all her fingers to her mouth.
Encourage and applaud your baby every time she gets a sign right.
Even if you are not convinced about the benefits of signing, do try and teach your baby just a couple of signs, perhaps for food or sleep. Remember, we have been using signs since time immemorial with our children. Waving bye bye for example is one sign babies universally pick up and seemingly with very little effort. That's because you and everyone around you has been teaching your baby to wave consistently, and at the appropriate moment, without really giving it much thought. Bye bye is one sign you didn't have to learn, while you may need to give some thought if you want to teach her other signs too. Do make the effort though, it's well worth it.
