To test three hypotheses concerning fingerspelling's contribution to word recognition, 24 deaf children in three age groups (7-9, 10-12, and 13-15 years) were administered a vocabulary recognition test and a lexical decision task. Subjects' performance was measured by the number of words accurately identified and the response latency. Results did not support the hypotheses. Children recognized more vocabulary in print than in fingerspelling; were more accurate in deciding the lexical status of words presented in print than words presented in fingerspelling; and were more accurate in deciding the lexical status of words that are typically signed in sign language than words that are typically fingerspelled. Results suggested that deaf children organize their recognition of written words around sign language and do not organize their recognition of fingerspelled words around sign language. (CL)