SUMMARYThe Swiss researchers Cardinet and Weiss (1975) have stressed, following recent psycholinguistic trends, the complexity of the intellectual activity involved in reading. A Belgian study (Burion, 1979) examined what constituted reading for a beginner, what were the general principles of teaching initial reading, and what the implications of these were for teaching early readers. Reading was taken to involve hypothesis forming and guessing, within constraints which vary according to the reader's skill. Beginning reading requires, among other things, motivation to learn and some relevant personal experience, both of which are aspects which parents and others have been encouraged to develop. Following Cardinet and Weiss (1974) and Inizan (1978) children's oral language is used as a basis for reading texts. The purpose and use of reading are stressed as well as the development of skills which are needed for continuing to learn how to read (see figure). In general, it is argued that the teaching of initial reading should focus upon the beginning reader rather than on teaching procedures and that account must be taken of factors in the individual child such as motivation, experience, oral language, cognitive development and pace of learning.