Best Baby Sign Language Book

If you’re in a hurry and just want to find out what the best baby sign language book is, I’d recommend the My First Signs.

Interested in helping your little one learn sign language? Babies can process language long before they’re able to speak. Teaching them sign language can help them learn how to communicate with you earlier. Looking for the best baby sign language book to get you started? We have a few of our favorites here for your review.

Here are the sign language books I will be reviewing:

• My First Signs
• Baby Signs: A Baby-Sized Introduction to Speaking with Sign Language
• My First Baby Signs
• Sign Language: My First 100 Words
• My First Book of Sign Language

Who Benefits From Baby Sign Language?

Whether it’s verbal or through the use of hand signs, the brain recognizes communication as language. In young children, this part of the brain is developing in leaps and bounds.

The more children pick up during this initial window, the easier it will always be for them to learn new languages. There are benefits to math and music gained here, as well.

Sign language isn’t just for babies and toddlers who don’t hear or speak. It’s a great tool for babies who can hear as well. It will help your child begin to process how to express themselves before they’re able to verbally. This improved communication? It can also mean less frustration (for both you and your little one) as well as fewer tantrums from your child.

How To Teach Your Little One Sign Language

There are a lot of great ways to get your child into sign language. The first is, of course, that you commit to learning it yourself if you don’t know the basics already. After that, you can try implementing these tips to help your baby learn the ropes of sign language more quickly:

• Always sign: Choose some of the signs you think will be the most beneficial to you. Add three into your rotation—like “no,” “yes,” and “more”—and give them a good start before adding in a few more. Every time you say the word out loud, do the sign as well. This will help your little one form the appropriate connection between the action, the word, and the resulting experience.
• Rely on multiple methods: Books for kids are a great way to help get your child learning sign language. There are also songs, videos, and group classes your child can attend to help you tap into different learning approaches. The more ways you can encourage your little one to develop signing skills, the better.
• Be consistent: Try to recreate the signs as consistently as possible, and use them when necessary. Have other caregivers use the signs as well.

My Baby Sign Language Book Reviews

Now that you know a little more about baby sign language—and what goes into learning it—you’re probably ready to look at some products. Here are a few of our favorite books.

My First Signs

Have you been looking for a comprehensive baby sign language book that’s geared toward children? This book of first signs may be what you had in mind. It contains more than 40 important signs to help get your little one to start communicating more quickly with baby sign language.

This book has been designed for children to read with their caregivers. The sign motion is explained for each included sign. A helpful tip is included at the bottom of every page for getting your child off to the right start with baby sign language.

The illustrations in this book are charming and colorful. They help communicate the sign for your little one while giving them something visual to keep them invested in the book.

This book offers words inspired by British Sign Language signs. Some of the signs have been modified to suit a younger audience. However, these are more closely aligned with ASL than they are with baby sign language vocabulary. If you’re looking for a book that will give your child a great start to ASL, this may work well for you.

This is a large-scale board book. It’s great for small hands and playtime, but it’s not something that will fit easily in a diaper bag. Your little one will likely enjoy looking at the pictures, but this is a book that’s really intended to be read and shared with your little one.

The format of this book is a little too sophisticated for children while the content is a little too simple for adults. If you’re looking for a resource for yourself to learn baby sign language, you may want to consider a different text.

Baby Signs: A Baby-Sized Introduction To Speaking With Sign Language

This book is a good option for a young child. It’s a board book edition which means even the roughest baby can be trusted alone with it. The brightly colored, sweet illustrations help captivate young babies even when they aren’t being read to.

This book features 13 different signs for you to teach your child. You’ll be able to teach your little one helpful signs, like how to ask for a new diaper or to tell you they need help. These signs can help your baby communicate what they need better while helping to ease any apprehension you have about meeting their needs.

This is a great book for introducing signs to your little one. But, it doesn’t require that you already know a lot about baby sign language. Each sign has its own page and illustration along with a brief description for you on how to accurately sign the word.

Getting your little one used to hearing the word and seeing the sign is a great start to learning baby sign language. Seeing the accompanying illustration can help give the word some more context for your little one. This book is really only designed to familiarize your child with the word and sign, though. True learning and retention will happen by repeating the sign throughout the day and as needed.

This book does include some useful signs like “mom,” “dad,” and “all done.” It doesn’t include all the signs you’ll likely want your little one to know, like “hungry,” “please,” or, “thank you.”

My First Baby Signs

Need more from a book than illustrations and instructions that are hard to read and process? This book has cute illustrations that include pull tabs to actually demonstrate the sign that goes along with the word.

This is a sturdy board book option. It will stand up even to rough, regular use. It only has eight signs in it, so it’s not a comprehensive guide. The words included are “all done,” “milk,” “eat,” “more,” “thank you,” “bath,” “help,” and “bed.”

If you’re highly visual, this can be a great learning guide. The illustrations clearly show the specific shape your hands are to make while signing. The pull tab allows you to see the order and direction of the gestures you need to make while signing.

The illustrations will keep your child engaged and the pull tab helps to promote fine motor skills. Seeing the sign in action will help both you and your little one learn your signs.

While the book itself is sturdy, the pull tabs can be fragile. You’ll want to make sure your little one uses the book while supervised to preserve the tabs. Some of the tabs may be more difficult for little hands to pull, which can lead to frustration and damaged tabs.

This book doesn’t have many signs for an older child who’s capable of using the book on their own. It’s a good choice for when you’re reading aloud to small children. This is a large-format book, which makes it easy to see the details of the signs. It does make it more difficult to travel with, though.

Sign Language: My First 100 Words

This book is available in both paperback and hardback editions. The illustrations are computer-generated and brightly colored to be appealing to young children. It has a simple-to-understand format that’s ideal for young learners.

With 100 words, this book has the most comprehensive vocabulary of signs on this list. It’s 32 pages long and great for slightly older children as well as younger children. In fact, this can be a great way to get older siblings involved in signing with a new baby.

This isn’t a storybook or even a collection of early signs with thematic illustrations. It’s really designed to be a reference guide or early dictionary for your little one. It can be a great addition to a library if your baby has a signing storybook they love to be read. This book can be a great way to get them exploring new words and signs.

Though this book is available in hardback and paperback, both have traditional paper pages. This means they can be torn easily and may not be a good option for very young children to use unsupervised.

This book includes a poster-sized reference sheet of the ASL alphabet. Looking for something that will provide long term learning, and not just something to use until your little one is verbal? This book is a solid choice.

This book isn’t designed for truly conversational ASL learning. It does, however, give your child (and you) a great sign foundation you can build on later.

My First Book Of Sign Language

This book has 32 pages and covers a good amount of beginner ASL information and signs. Included in the book are the alphabet, numbers, and the days of the week. It also includes basic frequently-used phrases like “please,” and “thank you.” In all, this book has about 100 different signs.

The illustrations are cheerful and bright to help keep your little one invested. The illustrations do a good job giving the sign context to help your child better process the word. Though the illustrations give instructions on how to create the corresponding sign, they do so using traditional sign directions.

If you’re unfamiliar with the written mark that designates a corresponding physical movement, it may be difficult to understand the gesture. Using this book alongside video tutorials can be a great way to learn the more complicated signs.

The pages in this book are traditional paper pages. This does mean they can be more easily damaged than a sturdier board book option. Though you’ll want to help your little one use this book, the illustrations are appealing even to the very young. The information and vocabulary included, though, is still pertinent to an older child.

There are some great, useful signs in here for young children. However, there are some signs you may want your baby to learn that aren’t included in this book. This is a great reference book that will likely work best for you when used in collaboration with more baby-friendly board books.

The Best Baby Sign Language Book For Your Little One

All of these books listed here can have a great place in your learning library. If I could choose only one to have at home, it would have to be My First Signs. I like that it has a greater number of signs for my child to learn while still having those baby signs we need. The cute illustrations and sturdy board book also make it something my little one can use even when we aren’t reading aloud.