This study investigated the effects of a program of mother-child interaction using children's books on the verbal skills of culturally disadvantaged 3-year-olds. A total of 47 subjects were involved in the study, with white and black children, males and females equally represented in experimental, placebo and control groups. After only three months of exposure to daily book reading by mothers at home, children in the experimental group scored significantly higher than children in the placebo group on two of the five measures of verbal skills and significantly higher than the control group on four of the five measures. One of the advantages of this project was that the mother became a more effective agent in the language development of her child. (Author/MK)