Abstract
This article analyzes the developmental process of how deaf children with heavy impediments in linguistic performance change from a preoperational level to an operational level when they are given some perspective tasks to solve, and clarifies the characteristics of the recognition ability of deaf children. The subjects were 28 deaf children and 38 hearing children, aged 6, 8, 10, and 12. The IQ of the subjects was over 95 on the non-verbal intelligence test of the S.O.N. The deaf children had an above average hearing level of 95 dB in the good ear. The results obtained were as follows. 1. Both deaf and hearing children reached over 70% of achievement in the test after 10 years of age. 2. The subjects achieved over 70% performance on the perspective task when they were in the preoperational period, but only 70% performance level was achieved during the operational period. 3. Deaf and hearing children showed almost the same level of the performance in the perception task but deaf children were inferior to hearing children in conceptual tasks at the age of 8. 4. Deaf children were inferior to hearing children at the age of 8 on the performance of distinction of positions, when they turned 90゜ and 270゜ to the right. 5. It is obvious that deaf children in the preoperational period have different strategies than hearing children. The results of this study show that deaf children with a heavy impediment in linguistic deficiency at the operational level compared to hearing children can improve from the preoperational level to the operational level through the solution of tasks.
