In this report, previous studies are reviewed in order to reconsider the assumption that lower class black children are generally deficient in their ability to produce syntactically elaborated speech. Though several studies have seemed to confirm the elaboration-deficiency hypothesis, the evidence presented is not convincing. Specific critiques of previous studies were that they: (1) confounded elaboration with dialect differences; (2) were not sufficiently sensitive to the content and context of sentences; (3) involved questionable decisions as to the elaborateness of syntactic forms; and, (4) were generally too gross to permit adequate interpretation of data. (Author/DM)