This brief focuses on strategies for teaching American Sign Language (ASL) to infants and toddlers to support their communication and overall development. Explore commonly asked questions related to ASL and early development. Find the most up-to-date information to answer these prompts:

1. What does the research say?
2. What are some commonly asked questions?
3. Try this!

Also check out the companion resource, Connecting at Home. It includes simple tips for families to support their children’s ASL learning and engagement.

Research Notes

If a family you work with wants to teach their infant or toddler American Sign Language, where do you start? Learn research-based strategies for choosing, introducing, and modeling signs to infants and toddlers.

The Take Home

1. The first step in introducing ASL to young children is gaining and maintaining their eye contact and attention.
2. When learning any new language, infants and toddlers need consistent language modeling that is relevant to their daily routines and activities.
3. Using child-directed vocabulary in ASL engages the brain and boosts language learning.

What does research say?

Eye contact comes first before modeling signs. 

ASL is a visual language, which means that making eye contact with an infant or toddler needs to happen first before showing them a sign. There are many ways to gain eye contact, for example, pointing to or showing an object to the child, gently tapping their arm or leg, or waving your hand in their visual field to get their attention. Experiment with these strategies to gain eye contact. It might take lots of repetition and patience to gain and maintain a young child’s eye contact.

Choose signs that are relevant to daily routines and activities. 

Infants and toddlers thrive with daily routines that include regular times to eat, play, socialize, and rest. Use the Ready DLL App to learn simple signs, such as “eat,” “milk,” “sleep,” and “play.” Every time you say “milk,” sign the word for milk too! When the words are relevant to the child’s' experience, it makes it easier for them to associate the sign with the action. For toddlers, you can model 2-3-word sentences with signs. Remember, it might take a few months of signing to an infant or toddler before they sign back. Repetition is key!

Child-directed signing engages infants and toddlers. 

The way we talk to infants and toddlers matters. Sing-songy speech, facial expressions, and back-and-forth interactions grab young children’s attention, boosts learning, and keeps them engaged. Use child-directed language with signs too! Magnify facial expressions, exaggerate the movements of signs, and hold signs in place while waiting for the infant or toddler to respond.

Commonly Asked Questions

Will learning ASL affect my child’s speech development?

Research shows that using sign language actually supports speech development. Not only that, but learning ASL can support English language learning as well. All children can benefit from the use of ASL with no risk to other language skills, including spoken language.

At what age can you start signing?

Any age is a good age to start signing! In their first year of life, infants are tuning into the languages around them before they begin to speak. Because large motor skills develop before speech skills, infants may start to sign to communicate before speaking. Toddlers have a lot to communicate but are still learning basic vocabulary for communicating wants, needs, and feelings. Teaching them a few signs helps reduce their frustration by giving them a nonverbal way to communicate.

Is it okay to not use ASL grammar with children?

ASL is a complete language that has its own grammar, separate from English. If a parent’s goal is to support basic communication with their child, it is okay to not use ASL grammar when signing. If you serve a family with a Deaf or hard-of- hearing child, talk with them and your disability services coordinator to learn more about how to support their language development. Families will make their own decisions about which languages to use with their infant or toddler, including if they want to use ASL grammar with their child.

Try This!

The parent is the child’s most important teacher, and you are their “guide on the side.” If the families you work with decide to use ASL with their child, share these tips to support their ASL engagement. They are designed for hearing children learning ASL. For support with using ASL with Deaf and hard-of-hearing children, reach out to your disability services coordinator.

• Talk with families to learn which signs might be important for them and their child to learn first. Explore the Ready DLL App and ASL online video dictionaries to learn the sign together or share the dictionary with families for them to learn.
• If you have an object you want to teach the sign for, like “book,” start by holding the book then either waving your hand to get their attention or calling the child’s name. Wait for them to look at you, then sign “book.” You can also put the book in their visual field then move it to your face, then sign “book.” These are simple ways to help gain a child’s eye contact before signing to them.
• Notice where the child is looking and say out loud what you see them looking at. For example, say “I see you're looking at the dog. The dog says, ‘Woof woof’!’” while signing “dog.” Looking together at different objects helps establish joint attention, which supports language learning.
• Learning a few signs or fingerplays for nursery rhymes is a fun and engaging way to involve infants and toddlers in language learning. Pause your singing and signs and wait for them to sign, babble, or speak the next piece of the song. Infants and toddlers love surprising stops and starts with music!
• Exaggerated and multimodal communication, like signing while talking, helps infants and toddlers learn. For example, if you’re asking an infant or toddler if they want “more,” you can say, “Do you want mooooore?” while holding the sign for “more.” Try to be creative with signing and your voice. You can say and sign a word quickly then sign slowly to generate engagement. For example, “More, more, more! Do you want mooooore?”, while raising your eyebrows up.

Learn More

• Using American Sign Language for Early Learning

Connecting at Home

Learning and using ASL with your infant or toddler can improve their communication, reduce frustration, and support vocabulary development.

Signs Just for Me

Learning a few signs that are unique to your child can help boost their interest in learning and communicating with ASL. Check out the Ready DLL App or look for an online ASL video dictionary to learn a few favorite signs. Does your child have a favorite pet, animal, toy, or family member? Learn these signs and sign them when you talk with your child, and sign it often! Toddlers are learning new skills all the time, like walking, jumping, or learning names for colors. Notice what new signs are relevant to them and learn them together. Learning new signs helps them connect language with their experience.

Face-to-Face

When playing with your infant or toddler, sit on the floor across from them, so you face each other. Follow their lead in what they find interesting or exciting. Use big, facial expressions to join their experience. Being face-to-face provides opportunities to share facial expressions, body language, ASL signs, and back-and-forth communication.

Feel the Beat

Singing together or playing with instruments helps your infant or toddler recognize rhythms, which are the building blocks of spoken and visual languages. Pat-a-cake, beating on a drum, or clapping are easy ways to get in rhythmic practice. For example, if your child loves the song “The Itsy-Bitsy Spider,” start with learning the signs for “spider,” “rain,” and “sun”!

Surprise Me

Infants and toddlers love to play peek-a-boo: the warm connection with a parent, face-to-face interaction, and anticipation of an exciting reveal is a highly engaging activity for them. Try peek-a-boo but use different facial expressions when you reveal your face — or surprise them with a silly word or sign when you reveal your face. A familiar song or finger plays with little surprises keeps your child engaged and interested in language play.

« Go to Connecting Research to Practice

Last Updated: May 30, 2025