In chapter 4 of Talking Hands, Fox discusses the way children acquire language. I guess I am confused about how this process works for both deaf and hearing babies. On page 65, she talks about between the ages of about six and ten months, hearing infants produce babble which we call baby talk. Then over time, as infants gain more exposure the babbling develops into adult language. She then continues to discuss how the exact same things happens with deaf infants exposed to sign as a first language. In this case, the babbling is manual. On page 68, Fox states, "For most deaf children, then, the experience of acquiring language is not at all comparable to that of hearing children." I understand that most deaf children are born of hearing parents so with this situation, sign would not be the first language. How then is language acquired for most deaf children? How is language acquired for deaf children with deaf parents? Is it very similar to hearing children with hearing parents?