Unproven beliefs about the process of reading and its instruction and about the effects of maturation and social structure on learning have obscured the question of what children know about how to read. An alternate conceptualization proposes that to learn to read children must obtain experience in three reading contexts: the use of print and its relationship to oral language (function of print), the rules for relating print to speech sounds (form of print), and the procedures for engaging in the act of reading and for discussing with others what one has read (conventions of print and procedures for instruction). This theory predicts that children need opportunities to learn about all three major systems to learn to read. Results from a test of the theory on young children who had no idea how to spell words, knew no words, and could barely recognize letters indicated that informal or formal instruction using letters, picture cards, printing, and story reading tasks could acquaint children with some of the functional and conventional contexts for reading. Experiences of recognizing words and identifying signs helped children figure out how print was meaningfully related to language, events, and objects. Furthermore, experiences of reading, discussing story information, and rereading stories provided them with a clearer understanding of how one held a book and what to look at when trying to read a story. (HOD)