Observation has suggested that different subgroups of precocious readers might be distinguished by different patterns of strengths and weaknesses. In particular, it seems that one group of children might be distinguished by the strength of their top-down, conceptually driven processes and another by their strong bottom-up, text driven processes. To determine if these impressions of precocious readers' strategies provide a valid description of more than a few cases, 87 teacher-designated precocious readers at the kindergarten level were studied. The children completed a reading comprehension test; tests of reading, verbal ability, and short term memory; and a battery of oral reading measures. In addition, their parents completed questionnaires describing the reading histories and reading habits of their children. Results indicated that precocious readers were especially adept at tasks that drew on processes above the individual word level. However, any generalizations about this group must be tempered by consideration of individual differences within the group. (FL)