As a cooperative project of Tel Aviv University, the University of Wisconsin, and Stanford University, four separate studies on reading were conducted in the 1970-71 school year with kindergarten and first grade Israeli students. The first study was the development of a prereading skills test consisting of picture vocabulary, word memory span, letter and letter-string matching, alphabet recognition and production, and rhyming subtests. The second study was a test of different instructional procedures for teaching picture-sound associations using Hebrew speech sounds as responses, and the third and fourth studies explored sound matching and syllable blending. Full reports of the procedures, materials, and results of each study are given, as well as implications for further studies in Israel and the United States. (TO)