The Snijders-Oomen Nonverbal Intelligence Test (SON) was administered to 251 deaf children (6-15 years old) and 101 hearing children (10-12 years old) in Israel. The SON was judged appropriate for measuring cognitive functioning in the deaf because it requires no verbal instructions or responses and includes a measure of abstract thinking ability. Factor analysis for older and younger Ss revealed four main findings: (1) the factor structure for the total deaf group differed from the hearing group; (2) differences in cognitive structure was evident by age level for the deaf; (3) differences existed between cognitive structures of hearing and deaf Ss of the same age; and (4) a similar abstract thinking component existed for hearing and older deaf Ss. Data supported the view that deaf individuals use different coping mechanisms to perform cognitive tasks and that the abstract thinking component of their intellectual structure appears later than that of their hearing peers. (CL)