The development of children's language skills was studied in an experimental research project involving programmed versus incidental instruction in a prekindergarten program. It was hypothesized that children who attended a prekindergarten with programed instruction would score significantly higher on language skills tests than would a comparable…

This experiment was based on the assumption that the academic failure of the disadvantaged or middle class child is due to a failure of instruction and that if above-normal learning schedules were maintained, the second year of an enrichment program would not show the customary drop in gains from the first year. The subjects of this study were 43…