My kid is just under a year, and has a few spoken words like ball, momma, book, but he can actually communicate intention with sign language. When he looks you dead in the eye and gives the milk sign, its obvious what he wants. He knows all done, more, food, drink, milk, dog, flower, bird, and maybe a few more, but he uses all done, more, milk, and drink the most. It’s really crazy how much faster he picked up signing.

That said, we’re not good at sign language at all, just learned it for the baby specifically. Highly recommend.