Reading should be considered a continuation of the language acquisition process and as such the early reading instruction, including pre-reading literary experiences, must build upon the language acquired in the pre-school years. As with oral language, in reading also, the child must discover the theory of his language and he must do so with relatively small amounts of data about his language. In the process of acquiring oral language in the pre-school years, the child must mimic, try out, and accept or reject his new information. In reading, the process is the same except that the learning may be structured by the teacher so the child makes fewer mistakes and may be led to the acceptance of new generalizations with greater efficiency than with oral language learning. Some means by which this may be achieved will be discussed. However, a brief review of the language acquisition which has taken place prior to kindergarten will be presented first