Successive studies conducted in Sweden have shown that linguistic awareness is an important prerequisite of learning to read. In one survey that measured the various aspects of the linguistic awareness of 6-year-old children, a very close connection was found between preschool linguistic awareness and reading proficiency in school. Another study that examined the influence of preschool exercises and games concluded that the capacity for discovering, dividing, and merging sounds could be developed before children actually started to learn to read at school, provided the exercises were properly structured and systematically conducted. Studies now in progress are giving attention to the way in which linguistic awareness is related to other aspects of children's linguistic and intellectual development. The results of one such study show that dyslexic students often find it particularly hard to read constructed nonsense words. In studies of the reading process and comprehension, a technique has been developed for studying reading "on line." This involves a computerized text presentation system whereby only one part of the passage appears distinctly. By varying this presentation, it is possible to obtain a diagnosis of reading proficiency for different readers and to diagnose the text itself by seeing at what speed it can be read. Finally, followup studies of students in grades one through six reveal a connection between self-image and reading since the students who had overcome their reading problems by grade six displayed a positive self-image development. (HOD)