This research report is based on a study designed to explicitly test Sigel's "Distancing Hypothesis" by examining the relationship between a cluster of seven maternal behaviors related to "distancing" and representation in a total of 60, 3- and 4-year-old boys. The boys were administered three tasks (in their nursery school) which measured representational skills, and later, with their mothers, were observed interacting in a university laboratory setting. A significant relationship was found between certain maternal teaching strategies and influence techniques coded in the laboratory session and children's performance on the representational task. It is suggested that parental use of communication styles which restrict a child's attention to the immediate physical and concrete present may discourage the child from exercising his symbolic capacities in problem solving situations which require their utilization. (Author/GO)