The research reported in this paper was conducted to assess the effect, if any, of school desegregation, as it occurred in 1966 in Riverside, California, on the speech habits and abilities of the children involved, and to assess the implication of these effects in relation to other psychological factors. Frequency count methods and California Achievement Test responses were used. One index of vocabulary size, average word length, showed predesegregational differences when ethnic group was considered as a variable. However, results as to desegregation effects were equivocal in that there was increase in word length for some grade levels and decrease for others. The ordering of the means with respect to ethnic groups did not appear to change with desegregation, although ethnic differences showed significant increase. [Not available in hard copy due to marginal legibility of original document.] (Author/DM)