Twenty-four deaf children (6 to 10 years old) were individually administered a task in which possession of accumulating candy rewards was made contingent upon the child stopping further accumulation. Ss, who under instruction periodically signed statements about the goodness of the reward, waited significantly longer before terminating the waiting period than did deaf children instructed to sign statements about the act of waiting and somewhat longer than did deaf children instructed to sign a neutral statement. As the pattern of delay was unlike that reported when nonhandicapped children verbalize similar statements the results were interpreted in terms of the functional differences between signed and spoken language. (Author)