This paper discusses a six-year study, the first of which was a two-year language arts program that began with four year olds, and the second part of which was a four-year effort to trace the progress made in reading by children who participated in that program as compared with the reading achievement of classmates who had not been participants. The chief aim of the two year preschool program was to provide participants with enjoyable language arts experiences from which they might or might not learn to read. The only requirement of this group was that they be four years old by December of the school year. Findings showed that when differences in intelligence test scores were accounted for, children in the experimental program obtained higher mean scores on reading tests during grades one through four. At the end of grades one and two, differences were large enough to merit statistical significance, but at the end of grades three and four, this was not the case. (HOD)