Categorization Behavior and Achievement in Deaf and Hearing Children

The Triple Mode Test of Categorization, developed to measure three major modes of categorization postulated by Vygotsky, and the Stanford Reading Achievement Test, were administered to 313 hearing children, 225 typically deaf children, and 21 special class deaf children. Modes of categorization were studied at different age and achievement levels. For the deaf children, superordinate and associate responding decreased with increasing age, while functional responding increased. For hearing children, increasing age was accompanied by increased superordinate responding, decreased associative responding, and stable functional responding. Other results are also discussed. The conclusions suggest that deficiencies in categorization behavior may contribute to deficient language performance in the deaf child.