Differential language development and preparation for school among young children of different racial and social groups has been asserted for decades. A study focused on mother-child interaction in two common activities: reading children's books and telling narratives about both shared and unshared experiences. A socially diverse group of 46 mothers and their 3-year-old children, half White, half African American, were compared. Each racial group was evenly divided among children whose mothers had no college, some college, and a bachelor's degree or more. Income ranged from under $5,000 to $75,000 in both racial groups. No children were in preschool or institutional day care, although more than half in each group were in family day care while their mothers worked. At-home sessions consisted of four experimental activities: (1) mother and child read "The ABC Exhibit"; (2) mother and child read "Mole and Mouse Clean House"; (3) mother asked child to tell experimenter about something exciting or fun they had done lately; and (4) experimenter made playdoh with the child (without mother) and mother then asked child how they did it. All mothers, including African American working class mothers, used known-answer questioning and provided other forms of "scaffolding" to assist their children in telling and reading. White mothers used more known-answer questions only in "The ABC Exhibit"; in other tasks there were no differences of race or social economic status. Six figures present the data. (AC)