Using Sign Language to Boost Speech Development in Late Talkers

Late Talkers, a term referring to children aged 18 to 35 months, represent approximately 15-20% of their age group. These youngsters have a limited expressive vocabulary, producing fewer than 50 words and no two-word combinations. One child I’ve worked with, Jason, serves as an example of a late talker. At the age of two, Jason struggled to express himself through words alone.

As a speech therapist, it’s crucial to recognize that late talkers like Jason need support and intervention. The risks associated with delayed speech development are substantial. Frustration and problematic behaviors often arise due to their inability to effectively communicate their wants and needs. This frustration can hinder their social and emotional development as they struggle to engage in meaningful interactions.

Moreover, late talkers receive reduced exposure to receptive language and fewer opportunities to practice producing speech, which can lead to them falling further behind developmentally. This gap in language skills can have negative impacts on literacy, academics, and school readiness, making learning more challenging as they progress.

In addition to academic challenges, late talkers may face social difficulties, as they are unable to fully participate in conversations. This can affect their friendships and social interactions, and they may even be at an increased risk for bullying or teasing related to their verbal skills, which can erode their self-esteem and confidence.

In my role as a speech therapist, I often use tools like sign language to assist children like Jason in bridging the gap between their limited verbal communication and their needs. Sign language provides an important means of expression as we work on developing their speech and language skills. With patience, therapy, and support, many late talkers often make significant progress and catch up to their peers in their language development.

Important to note:

While gesture and sign intervention can prove an effective bridge for communication  for many late talkers, specific child characteristics such as interest, cognition, motor skills, and the nature of the delay should also be taken into account. 

Using gesture and sign can facilitate speech development in several key ways:

  1. Provides a means of basic communication before speech emerges – reduces frustration and problematic behaviors since children can communicate wants/needs through gesture and signs even with limited vocabulary.
  2. Reinforces understanding of language – pairing gestures/signs with spoken words enhances children’s association of symbols (hands signs) with real objects/actions. Supports comprehension.
  3. Offers additional modeling of language – seeing gestures/signs used alongside speech gives children more exposure to adult modeling of communication.
  4. Encourages joint attention and interaction – using gesture/sign often prompts children to focus attention on the adult and elicits responsive communication. More interaction provides more language practice.
  5. Reinforces learning through multiple sensory modalities – executing motor actions of gestures/signs activates kinesthetic and visual pathways in addition to auditory, enhancing memory and learning.
  6. Motivates attempts at speech production – as children learn to produce gestures/signs for communication, this builds pathways and skills needed for vocalizations/speech. Success communicating nonverbally motivates verbal attempts.

In essence, gesture and sign facilitate speech development by allowing for communication even before speech, modeling language, increasing interaction, and motivating verbal attempts through multisensory reinforcement. This buys time for late talkers to close gaps with peers and prevents secondary impacts on other speech and language domains.

Kickstarting Signing Success for Children with Speech Delays

Here is how I introduce signing to children with speech delays to set them up for success:

To start off right:

  • Choose just 2-4 signs at first – too many is overwhelming
  • Demonstrate signs repeatedly whenever the situation arises
  • Gently guide child’s hands into sign shape while verbalizing
  • React excitedly to signing attempts – encouragement is key!

My go-to first signs include:

  1. More
  2. All done
  3. Eat
  4. Drink
  5. Milk
  6. Please
  7. Thank you
  8. Bathroom
  9. Ball
  10. Baby

I also let kids show me their preferred signs. For example:

  • 18-month Marco gravitated fast to “more” and “eat” at meals.
  • 2 1/2 year old Lila quickly learned signs for  “baby” and “ball.”
  • 3-year old Noah loved signing “please” and “thank you.”


Allowing kids to latch onto motivating signs makes it fun! Starting with few high interest signs ensures signing success. Meeting kids’ needs and developmental level is key.

Keeping the introduction of signing simple and rewarding for children with speech delays is crucial. When you break it down into manageable steps, introducing signing into communication can have a positive and, at times, even an immediate impact on their interactions

In sum, my experience as a speech therapist has demonstrated time and again the considerable benefits of introducing signing to children with communication delays. Signing has often worked to transform interaction for a majority of young patients I’ve had the privilege to work with over my years as a therapist. While introduced as a therapeutic technique, I’ve come to believe that early use of gesture plants seeds that well may grow into instinctual habits reaching into adulthood.