Three hundred twenty-six disadvantaged boys and girls in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten were pre- and post-tested in clay sculpturing, drawing and verbal cognitive abilities to determine whether teaching children through a non-verbal art medium, clay, would improve their verbal skills. Assessment instruments were developed. Children were assigned to 1 of 4 treatment groups in which teachers (1) encouraged children's clay activities; (2) provided guidance through discussions of how to solve clay sculpturing problems; (3) supplemented discussion with demonstrations of techniques for working with clay; and (4) provided no special treatment (this group served as a control). The data analysis focused on 3 research questions: (1) Does intervention through clay make a difference in the development of children's verbal cognitive achievement? (2) Does the method of teaching clay make a difference in the development of children? and (3) What type of clay teaching program is best for which type of children? Children in the combined experimental teaching programs made significantly more improvement than the control group in clay, drawing, and verbal cognition achievement, and the technique teaching approach was most effective in developing clay, drawing and verbal cognitive capabilities in all boys and girls. These and other findings are discussed in detail. Appendices provide information on testing and teacher-training materials used in the study. (Author/SE)