initiate conversation with Lucy by
signing whatever caught her attention.
Parents who sign with their babies
are always amazed at how much their
children are actually observing in
their environment and their ability to
communicate what they see. Rocky
Hareb loved to sign “cow” and say
“moo”, but being a city boy in Hong
Kong, he hadn’t seen one in the flesh.
When he was around 16 months, his
parents took him to South Africa to
visit his grandparents. He was very
excited to see their black and white
Staffordshire bull terrier and signed
“cow” frantically. His parents found
lots of opportunities to show him the
difference in scale between a cow
and a dog in South Africa (though he
remained convinced the Staffie was
just a small cow!).
One of the more rewarding
milestones of signing is when it
goes beyond expressing needs to
communicating feelings. Molly
Grenham recalls walking down the
street with her 19-month-old son
Lucian and spotting a stationary
fire truck. She walked to it assuming
Lucian may enjoy seeing it up close.
But as she approached the fire
truck, she noticed Lucian signing
“afraid” and she knew instantly that
he probably found the large truck
intimidating.
Peak performance
Irrespective of when you start signing
to your baby, the motor coordination
needed to sign back develops around
eight months, which coincides
with other gestures such as waving
goodbye, clapping, nodding yes or
shaking the head no. More often than
not, the first signs a child picks up are
the three to five words associated with
the primal need for food and milk.
For Kate Hareb, the ideal time to
start signing with her baby presented
itself when she introduced baby-led
weaning at seven months. She says,
“Rocky loved to eat and experiment
with new foods. Once he learned his
first few signs, he realised he could
sign ‘more’ for the food he liked.”
Signing can peak to around 100
words between 12 and 18 months,
and follows the natural trajectory
of a child’s interest, gravitating
to the subjects that capture their
imagination. This intermediate
period, when signing vocabulary is
peaking and toddlers are picking up
their first words, can be a fascinating
time. Children will intersperse
speaking with signing and may use
signs as a fallback when they feel
they aren’t being understood. Singwa
recalls how her 17-month-old son
came into the room with a star-topped
wand and excitedly tried to say “green
star”. But, at the time, his speech
wasn’t clear and seeing that his mother
didn’t understand, he switched to
signing “green” and “star” to clarify
what he was saying.
As children begin to string
words into simple sentences around
the two-year mark and build up
the confidence to speak, they start
dropping their signs. Only on
occasion will they revert back to
signing, often to elicit empathy by
signing a very earnest “sorry” to
accompany an apology, or a frenzied
sign for “please” to appeal for
something they really want. In our
family, signing made a comeback
after our younger son started
signing. At that point, Isaac hadn’t
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