On a page after the Table of Contents, without any other text, Fox includes the following quote, from Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations*, "To imagine a language means to imagine a form of life."

Entering my twentieth year as one who works with people with developmental disabilities I can personally attest to the truth of this quote. Although not professionally trained in sign language, over the years I have learned to distinguish and use signs that are appropriate to the situation (just as children growing up in the hearing world learn that there are some words that they use among their friends and others to their parents). Because of my background, I initially approached Talking Hands as a reference book that would improve my own job performance. I am ashamed to admit that I opened the book with a degree of pomposity, thinking that after two ...