THE RELATIVE EFFECTIVENESS OF THREE APPROACHES TO BEGINNING READING WAS STUDIED. THE THREE APPROACHES WERE (1) PITMAN'S INITIAL TEACHING ALPHABET APPROACH (ITAA), (2) A MODIFIED LANGUAGE ARTS APPROACH WITH TRADITIONAL ORTHOGRAPHY (LAA), AND (3) A BASIC READER APPROACH (BRA). TWO INTERRELATED PROBLEMS WERE ALSO TREATED IN THIS STUDY--(1) THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE ITAA WHICH WAS DESIGNED TO PROVIDE A SIMPLE AND MORE RELIABLE ALPHABET FOR CHILDREN AND (2) THE IMPORTANCE OF FOCUSING ATTENTION ON CHILDREN'S OWN THOUGHTS AND IDEAS TO DEVELOP SELF-CONFIDENCE IN READING. THE STUDY WAS CONDUCTED IN 13 SCHOOL DISTRICTS IN MICHIGAN, WITH EACH DISTRICT DIVIDED INTO THREE SECTIONS, EACH USING ONE APPROACH. THE STUDENTS WERE PRETESTED AND AFTER 140 DAYS OF INSTRUCTION WERE POST-TESTED, AND THE TREATMENTS WERE COMPARED. INTERPRETATION OF THE TEST RESULTS SHOWED THAT NO ONE APPROACH WAS CONSISTENTLY SUPERIOR. THERE WERE, HOWEVER, DIFFERENT LEVELS OF ACCOMPLISHMENT AMONG THE THREE APPROACHES--(1) ITAA AND LAA CHILDREN DEVELOPED LARGER READING VOCABULARIES AND MORE EFFECTIVE USE OF THEIR POTENTIAL OF WORD ANALYSIS, (2) LAA CHILDREN MADE MORE EFFECTIVE USE OF THEIR INTELLIGENCE IN PARAGRAPH COMPREHENSION, (3) ITAA CHILDREN DEVELOPED A BROADER RANGE OF SKILLS FOR RECOGNIZING ISOLATED WORDS, AND (4) LAA AND BRA CHILDREN WERE BETTER SPELLERS. THE INVESTIGATOR CONCLUDED THAT, WHILE A FINAL, POSITIVE EVALUATION OF ITAA COULD NOT BE DRAWN FROM THIS STUDY, THE EMPHASIS ON STARTING WITH THOUGHTS AND IDEAS OF CHILDREN DID PRODUCE EAGER LEARNERS IN THE CLASSROOM. (PM)