Reading requires the synthesis of auditory and visual skills and therefore involves almost all of the brain. Stages of reading include prereading skills (requiring an adequate spoken vocabulary), the ability to name letters and pictures, good memory for spoken sentences, and manual dexterity in copying patterns. Learning to read involves the ability to link the separate phonemes in a word with printed material. For most children, an auditory method is better than a visual one for teaching reading. Skilled reading depends on knowledge of word probabilities in speech and is characterized by the ability to transfer visual input into comprehension without the intervention of the speech system. The collaboration of the two sides of the brain is required for skilled reading. Poor readers may reflect right brain superiority and be more adapt at visuo-spatially oriented disciplines. (Author/KS)