To discover whether linguistic retardation shows itself in vocabulary concerned with orectic characteristics of children and whether a relationship exists between linguistic retardation and orectic immaturity, children were studied (ages 8 to 16) from 11 schools for the hearing impaired. Discussed as background is the general linguistic development of deaf children including language characteristics, patterns of communication from the child and from the behavior of others, and language in cognitive and orectic development. The children were tested on hearing, intelligence, personality, and vocabulary over a 2-year period and were compared to a group of normal hearing and a group of partially hearing children. The results indicated that hearing impaired children tended to be retarded in their linguistic development; they were retarded in vocabulary but even more retarded in orectic vocabulary; they had a smaller vocabulary of family relationships which lowered with the distance of relatives; their pictured situation vocabulary was lower; and girls seemed more advanced than boys in language development. Extensive tables of results and their implications are provided. (JM)