A study was conducted to describe conceptions of the usefulness of reading (the function or "why" of reading) and conceptions of the reading process (the form or "how" of reading) among preschool and first grade children in Sweden. The research paradigm used--based on the work of Vygotsky and Piaget--was called the "second order perspective" and centered on how people describe different aspects of their surrounding world. Data were drawn from transcribed clinical individual interviews with 80 preschool children and a follow-up study of 53 children at the end of the first grade. The interviews with the first grade children were supplemented with reading rate, word comprehension, and reading comprehension tests. Results showed that the children described the function of reading in two qualitatively different ways: as a possibility (they see reading as useful for themselves) and as a demand (they see reading as something pressed upon them by others). The children described the process of reading in four different categories: contextual, textual, interactive, and body-related. Overall, the study found that children think a great deal about reading well before they have started school and acquired some reading competence. (FL)