Studies in the area of developmental psychology--especially those carried out in the past thirty years--show that preschool quality, both at the structural and process levels, in combination with the quality of the family environment influences various areas of children's development and learning. The goal of this study is to determine the effect of preschool quality, maternal and paternal educational level, and the age of the child when starting preschool on various areas of children's language competence (understanding language, verbal expression, and metalanguage). Our sample included 5-year-old children attending preschool--some for approximately four years, others for two. We also took into account the level of maternal and paternal education, as well as the quality of the preschool class the child was attending, as an independent variable. The results indicate that maternal education is the strongest predictor of children's language competence measured among 5 year olds, regardless of the child's age upon entry into preschool. It was also determined that early entry into a high quality preschool is a factor that lessens the effect of parental education on children's language development, and has a positive effect on the language development of children whose parents have a low level of education and express a lower level of language competence. (Contains 2 figures, 5 tables and 1 footnote.)