Summary.Earlier analyses of the syntactic development of English profoundly deaf children have revealed the existence of non‐standard stages in the evolution of verb phrases. These pass from a stage of unit verbs where form of the verb is constant, usually present or past, but with no regular time‐reference; through an intermediate stage of dual time reference, frequently as with the children studies contrasting future and a common present/past system. In this latter, form still has no systematic time‐marking function. Finally children develop a three‐fold time marking system in which form and reference of verbs are fairly consistently related. It was predicted that the stage of development reached in verb‐phrase production would influence the perception of verb phrases in language reception. A reading task, using vocabulary known to the subjects, was used, requiring the children to recognise the time‐reference of simple sentences. The prediction was supported: the productive linguistic model of the children appears to be related to their perception