This document reports an investigation of the relationship between maternal practices as observed in the home and the cognitive development of young children from low-income families. The purpose of the study was to determine if lower-class maternal warmth was associated with intellectual growth of the child. Fifty-two lower class mothers were observed interacting with their 4-year-old children at home. The children, involved in a compensatory preschool program, were pretested and posttested on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. Maternal behaviors reflective of warmth were tallied and correlated with the child's IQ and teacher ratings of his behavior. The maternal warmth variable correlated significantly with initial IQ, IQ gain in preschool, and teacher rating of academic motivation. (Author/AJ)