They’re like chimps for a while—the hands work better than the mouths. I babysat a kid who could sign “more”, “drink”, “cereal”, and “banana” before she could say anything useful. Also, the signs are designed to be easy, while the most useful English words were not (otherwise “ba” and “um” would mean something useful, because those are usually the first sounds we manage.)
Babies don’t seem to be able to learn to sign all that sooner than they learn to talk.
They’re like chimps for a while—the hands work better than the mouths. I babysat a kid who could sign “more”, “drink”, “cereal”, and “banana” before she could say anything useful. Also, the signs are designed to be easy, while the most useful English words were not (otherwise “ba” and “um” would mean something useful, because those are usually the first sounds we manage.)