Do Baby Signs Delay Talking? What Parents Should Know

By Julia Taylor, B.App.Sc. (Sp.Path.), M.Hlth.Sc., CPSP 6 min read

It's one of the most common worries we hear: “If my baby can sign for milk, why would she ever bother saying it?” It feels logical. But gesture and speech aren't rivals — they're teammates. Long before first words, children communicate with their hands, and that hand-talk is one of the strongest signs that spoken words are on the way.

Gesture comes first — and that’s a good thing

Milestone guides from ASHA, the CDC, and Speech Pathology Australia all treat gestures — pointing, waving, reaching, showing — as core communication milestones in the first year and a half (ASHA, n.d.; CDC, 2026a; Speech Pathology Australia, n.d.). A baby who points at the dog and looks back at you is already having a conversation. The words come next.

In other words, gesturing is not a detour away from talking. It is the on-ramp. Children who gesture a lot tend to have plenty to “say” — they just say it with their hands until their mouths catch up.

So do signs replace words?

For typically developing children, communicating by sign or gesture does not stop speech from coming. Spoken words are simply easier for most children once they can produce them — talking is faster than signing, works across the room, and gets quicker results.

What actually matters is what happens around the sign. When your baby signs “more” and you respond warmly and say the word out loud — “More! You want more banana!” — they hear the exact word for the exact thing they care about, at the exact moment they care about it. That is prime word-learning territory.

Always pair the sign with the spoken word — say it as you sign it
Treat every sign as a conversation starter, not an endpoint
When words start to appear, celebrate them and keep responding to both
Follow your child’s interest — sign the things they love (more, milk, all done, dog)

When gestures are worth a closer look

Because gesture is such an important early milestone, the absence of gestures matters more than the presence of them. If a baby is not pointing, waving, or showing things to share attention by around a year, that is worth mentioning to your child’s doctor or a certified speech-language pathologist (CDC, 2026a; ASHA, n.d.).

Professional bodies on both sides of the Pacific are clear on this: don’t “wait and see” if you’re worried (Speech Pathology Australia, n.d.). A check-in is quick, kind, and either reassures you or gets support started early.

Make hand-talk part of play

You don’t need a formal signing course. Pick a handful of useful signs, use them during real routines, and narrate as you go. Books are wonderful for this — pausing on a page so your child can point, then naming what they found, is gesture-and-word practice in its purest form.

The Woodland Friends books in the shop were designed with exactly this in mind — big, clear scenes with hidden friends to point at, and one repeated word per book so the word your child hears most is the word they’re most ready to say. The word kits pair those target words with toys you already own.

The takeaway

Signs and gestures don’t delay talking — they’re part of how talking gets built. Pair every sign with the spoken word, treat pointing as conversation, and mention it to a professional if gestures themselves are missing.

Sources & further reading

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (n.d.). Late language emergence (Practice Portal). https://www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/late-language-emergence/
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. (n.d.). Communication milestones: Birth to 5. https://www.asha.org/public/developmental-milestones/communication-milestones/
Speech Pathology Australia. (n.d.). Communication milestones. https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/Public/Archive/Backups/Public/Comm-swallow/Speech-development/Communication-milestones.aspx
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2026a). Milestones by 1 year. https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/milestones-1yr.html
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2026b). Milestones by 18 months. https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/milestones-18mo.html
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. (2022). Speech and language developmental milestones. https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/speech-and-language

A friendly note (and the fine print)

This article is general educational information only. It is not speech therapy, therapeutic advice, an assessment, a diagnosis, or a substitute for individualized professional care, and reading it does not create a therapist–client relationship. Every child is different — if you have any concerns about your child’s speech, language, hearing or development, please consult your own certified speech-language pathologist, pediatrician or family health professional, who can advise you about your individual child. See when to talk to a professional for how to find one.

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