Little Signs, Big Smiles: ASL for Tiny Hands is a heartwarming and practical introduction to American Sign Language (ASL) for the youngest learners and their caregivers. Vielka L. Montout has created a beautifully accessible guide that turns early communication into a joyful and bonding experience.

The book shines with its charming illustrations of babies and toddlers using everyday signs, making it visually engaging for little ones and easy for adults to follow along. Each sign is paired with a simple written description, helping caregivers feel confident as they teach and reinforce ASL during daily routines.

What truly sets this book apart is its emphasis on bridging the gap between pre-verbal children and their families. Readers have praised it for its clarity, warmth, and ability to reduce frustration by empowering children to express their needs before they can speak. While some may desire a bit more detail on certain signs, the book’s overall structure makes it a strong and accessible resource.

In all, Little Signs, Big Smiles is a thoughtful and encouraging addition to any family's bookshelf. It’s especially valuable for parents, educators, and caregivers looking to support early language development in a fun, inclusive, and meaningful way.

As someone who has been conversationally fluent in ASL since high school, I was really excited to see how a book about ASL signs geared towards children would be. I LOVED this book! I really enjoyed the vocabulary, the steps included for creating the signs, and the diversity and inclusivity of the characters and artwork. While this is an ASL book with a more child-like style and very basic beginning signs, it would be an incredible tool for those who have no prior knowledge of ASL! Some of the included signs were mom, dad, dog, cat, eat, more, please, hello, goodbye, friend, and many more!

I received a copy of this eBook from netGalley for a honest review.

This is one of the best ASL books for kids I've read. It's a story book too with multiple words in ASL to learn that will help in the daily life of kids.

This book is everything I thought it would be. The bright inclusive pictures showing all types of families and the demonstrations to help sign the words as you read along. I would love if there were some Australian Sign Books like this as well.
Perfect for reading to younger children and older children who can follow along with the simple sentence structures.

Netgalley ARC - 3.5 stars rounded up. This is a good introduction to some basic ASL signs that are useful and intuitive for kids. I wish the word being defined in each rhyme was more distinctly bolded and that the hands were larger in general, rather than the magnified heads, so we could see the signs more clearly.

As someone involved with disability activism, anything that promotes learning ASL for the abled public is on my nice list, so I was super excited to see an ASL book for kids. Most ASL books (even the kids ones) have a hard time indicating motion and end up doing side by side grids that confused me as a kid, this one does not. The art is not too overwhelming, it’s very smooth across the page and the little rhymes make the hand motions memorable. This is perfect for little kids to learn a little bit of sign language.

This is such a great book for learning the basics of ASL. It’s super informative and inclusive and such a great way to learn some basics of sign language. While this book is definitely aimed for younger children, I’d still recommend it to all ages because, as I stated previously it’s super informative and who doesn’t love a picture book!

5 stars ⭐️

This was such a cute, informative and inclusive book for young children learning ASL.

While scrolling for books on NetGalley, my toddler daughter saw this cover and immediately started tapping on my tablet to look at it closer. We opened it and went through the entire book (twice). Good thing she knows the sign for “again”! She loved the clear pictures and the rhyming captions.

I’m almost ashamed to admit that I didn’t understand the importance of learning (at the very least basic) ASL until my middle child was speech delayed. While going to speech therapy with my him a few years ago, my husband and I started to learn and teach some basic ASL signs so that our (then) 3 year old could communicate with us better.

I wish I had come across a book like this then, but luckily I’ve come across it now and have a great reference book for my almost 2 year old daughter. We immediately started using basic ASL with her from the start so this book was very fun for her to flip through and do her signs along with the pages, we even learned a few new ones like “cat” and “dog”

I thought the summary and questions/game portion in the back was brilliant and this is definitely something I would want to go over with my oldest son (7) as well.

This was brilliantly done! I’ll be getting a physical copy for the house.

Thank you NetGalley for early access to this one!

This is a fantastic resource for parents and caregivers!! I read this with my 4 year old daughter who knows some ASL because we have been teaching her since before she could speak. It’s so helpful and beneficial to know when they are younger and they can’t speak yet. But not only that, it’s great to know another language and this book illustrates and teaches it in an effective and beautiful way, not just for younger kids like my daughter but for the older kids like myself!

Very well done!

What a truely amazing and beautiful book. I read this to my 4 year old niece and we did all the hand signs together. The art is beyond stunning and it was so easy to follow and learn.
I’ll definitely be buying her a physical copy when it comes out. We now have our own secret way of talking that we’ve been using all day.. Since finishing she’s has asked to learn more. I have to say, I’m excited as well. I really appreciated the diversity represented.

This was such a cute read! I read this one with my two toddlers who know a little bit of sign language from having speech delays (1 had one in the past and 1 has a current slight speech delay) and it was so fun to learn some new signs. The illustrations were adorable and my children truly enjoyed this storytime experience.

This was fantastic and I really wish there was also a BSL version
The illustrations were clear for the different signs along with the text. My youngest is non verbal and we are trying to learn sign language as a family and this was great to read with the whole family sat together

Would very much recommend this as an intro