These children will need to be taught much of what they will ultimately know about speech. For both deaf and hearing children, the same is true of signed languages, as long as the children's visual perception and intelligence are intact. We would consider it ludicrous to expect a blind infant to acquire Sign Language simply by being in an environment where it is used by the adults around him. In much the same way, there are very real biological limits for most Deaf children to acquiring spoken language through natural interactive processes. Such a teaching process, by nature, must often involve structured, repetitive practice.
Spoken language is, by nature, an auditorily perceived language.
Access must be considered at the heart of every issue when generalizing to deaf children findings that are based on hearing children who have full auditory input from spoken conversation for natural, interactive acquisition in both their first and second languages. In order for language to develop, the input simply must be comprehensible to the child. The development of the first language, which contributes to later success in acquiring the second language and other language forms, must not be sacrificed to insufficient input or intervention-type training processes in lieu of natural acquisition. In disregarding or not respecting them because they are not simple, we certainly complicate the lives of the deaf children whom we want to teach to speak. We make them pay dearly for our lack of honesty, sometimes jeopardizing their entire equilibrium.