This study analyzes the development of vocabulary among preschool children and its relationship with the family's income level and story reading at home. As a nonexperimental quantitative study, it evaluates the receptive vocabulary of 142 preschool children in municipal schools in the commune of Talca, Chile by analyzing information on family income level and story reading at home. Performance in vocabulary indicates that 50.7% of the children show slight and serious lags, without significant differences by income level. On analyzing the variables independently, no significant differences were found in the interaction of story reading or in the family's income level, with regard to vocabulary. The results are discussed as a function of the challenge for the school system.