It is widely accepted that within certain biological limits, a child's development emerges out of a continuous and increasingly complex interaction with significant people in his or her environment. Mothers and other significant adults, as experienced members of the culture, may be viewed as mediators and tutors who transmit cultural knowledge and skills to children. This study is part of a larger investigation of cultural competence as a renewable resource in urban slums, and compared previous studies in Norway with the present Egyptian study. The subjects were 25 Egyptian mothers and their preschool children. The relationship between mothers' teaching styles and their children's educability and cognitive functioning was assessed by administering the Running Horse Game Test (which requires rule-understanding and planning) and the Raven Progressive Matrices intelligence tests separately to mother and child. The results indicated a significant relationship between mother's teaching and her child's educability. In addition, the mother's intelligence and education were related to her teaching, and less strongly to the child's educability. Her teaching strategy was, however, more predictive than intelligence and education were of the child's educability, and was a substantially more predictive factor of the child's intelligence. These findings are parallel to the previous Norway studies, suggesting that the effects of maternal teaching have some transcultural validity. (Contains 27 references.) (MOK)