The purpose of this study was to identify the differences between students who profit from compensatory education programs and those who do not. The study looked at family systems, family interactions, and individual children's behavior from a point of view that subsumes cognitive and communicational style variables which differ from the framework of more traditional methods. The overall hypothesis was that family verbal behavior or characteristic communicative style could provide various kinds of perspectives and rules for behavior that become internalized for school children. Furthermore, it was proposed that these communicative styles within the family enhance or curtail the children's ability to listen, attend, conceptualize, and sit still. Family interviews were designed to identify communicational and cognitive levels. Also developed and pilot tested were behavioral tasks for small groups of children, administration of which permitted relevant communicational and cognitive behaviors to emerge. (KG)