Amanda Knox Trying to Break Habit of Speaking Italian

Amanda Knox is in seclusion somewhere outside of Seattle.

ByABC News
October 6, 2011, 9:34 AM

Oct. 6, 2011— -- Amanda Knox is in seclusion as she readjusts to life outside of an Italian prison, including getting used to speaking English again.

Knox's father, Curt Knox, told "Good Morning America" today that his daughter out of habit occasionally slips back into Italian, a language she became fluent in during her four years in Capanne prison outside of Perugia while she battled charges that she murdered her roommate.

"It has become really almost her first language since she's been in prison so long, but she seems to be moving to English," Curt Knox said with a chuckle. He said she got "a kick" out of having to be reminded to speak English at her airport news conference Tuesday night.

Curt Knox indicated that he had been worried about possible trauma his daughter suffered during her long incarceration, but seemed relieved so far.

"She's actually doing a lot better than I anticipated. She's seems to just almost look like she hasn't missed a beat with the family and that's been really great to see," he said.

Curt Knox said they had not yet decided on seeking counseling for Amanda.

"We're going to take it on a day-by-day basis and see how she continues to react and kind of blend back in to just being a regular person outside of prison. It's a big concern of mine if there's any traumatic circumstances that arise later on," he said.

Amanda Knox Is in Seclusion

The stress of those last days in prison were obvious as Knox became tense, broke out in hives, lost weight and nearly collapsed when the not guilty verdict was announced.

Amanda Knox had told her family that one thing she was looking forward to was lying in the grass in the back yard of her Seattle home. She hasn't laid down in that grass yet because she is staying outside of Seattle, but she has laid down in the grass, her father said.

"She has and it's been very nice to watch her do it," he said. "It's the little things that she hasn't had a chance to do in the last four years that really make it worth while and really kind of get her reconnected again."

One of the things that she has enjoyed since returning to the U.S. has been playing with her twin cousins who were only 1-year-old when Knox went to prison. She's also been "just sitting down and talking with friends, kind of catching up."

Knox, who was 20 when she was arrested and is now 24, is only now realizing how big a news story her case had become. That became clearer at the size of the news conference when she arrived at the airport in Seattle.

"The only exposure she really saw when she entered the courtroom [for hearings] and all of the cameras were flashing," Curt Knox said. "To see all of the cameras at the particular press conference gave her a better idea of what people were following and the fact that they were following her case so closely."

Amanda Knox was so in tune with prison routines that she followed an inmate ritual for prisoners who are leaving. She left her bed unmade, kept her fists clenched during her verdict hearing, snapped her toothbrush and carried the broken pieces outside to be thrown away. And her first step to freedom was a sliding motion with her right foot -- a symbolic gesture to others who are unjustly imprisoned.

Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were freed this week after an Italian appeals court rejected their conviction in the murder of Meredith Kercher. Italian prosecutors said they intend to appeal to Italy's supreme court.

A third person, drifter Rudy Guede, was also convicted of taking part in the murder during a separate trial. Guede is serving a 16-year prison sentence and has exhausted his appeals.