A previous study found that middle-class Hebrew-English bilingual children were characterized by distinctive perceptual strategies and more advanced processing in certain verbal tasks, as compared to similar monolinguals. The present study tested whether similar strategies and response patterns will appear when the children involved are from different language groups and from relatively disadvantaged inner-city neighborhoods. The results showed that Spanish-English bilingual children manifest similar strategies to those found in the previous study, although with some attenuation. The strategies apply to nonverbal as well as verbal material. These results appeared in spite of deficiencies in vocabulary and syntax usage for the Spanish-English bilinguals relative to their control group of similar ethnic and social background. (Author/CFM)