A classification task with two experimental conditions, a visual presentation mode and a verbal presentation mode, was presented to 20 adult subjects and to 108 children, ages 3 years, 9 months to 7 years, 2 months. Among children, verbal presentation elicited a significantly greater number of accurate functional classifications than did the visual presentation. Adults performed equally in the two modes. Children were more likely to respond with a categorical or classification label when presented with verbal word pairs than when shown two pictures of the same pair of items. The implications of this finding for developmental studies, assessment, and treatment are addressed. (Author/RH)