This study assesses the influence of an elaborative vs. non-elaborative teaching style on children's nursery school behavior. (Elaborative teachers elicit more comments from the child, and offer more options for solving problems than non-elaborative teachers). Subjects, 24 white children of welfare mothers, were assigned to an elaborative (experimental) or non-elaborative (control) group. Experienced teachers conducted four 20-minute sessions each day for 17 days, modifying their teaching style depending on the group being taught. Recordings and observations of teaching style and child verbalizations were made. Results indicated reliability of teaching styles over time and greater frequency of elaborative statements in response to teacher elicitation for the experimental group. A possible modeling effect of teachers on children was suggested for both groups. Results on pre- and posttests designed to measure problem solving abilities showed few differences between the two groups. Greatest differences appeared on verbal tasks. It was concluded that nursery school teachers who teach elaboratively and give positive and individualized responses to children's verbalizations have children who exhibit elaborative behavior in class. (DR)