THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PROGRAMED INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS FOR TEACHING BASIC READING SKILLS TO SLOW-LEARNING, CULTURALLY-DEPRIVED, 6 TO 9 YEAR-OLD CHILDREN WAS EVALUATED. THE MATERIALS STUDIED HAD BEEN EVALUATED PREVIOUSLY WITH EDUCABLE MENTALLY RETARDED SUBJECTS, 10 TO 16 YEARS OF AGE. THE STUDY WAS MADE TO DETERMINE WHAT MODIFICATIONS OF THESE MATERIALS WOULD BE NEEDED FOR USE WITH THE YOUNGER STUDENTS. THE 45 CHILDREN WERE DIVIDED INTO ONE CONTROL GROUP TAUGHT BY TRADITIONAL CLASSROOM TECHNIQUES AND TWO EXPERIMENTAL GROUPS, ONE TAUGHT BY MACHINE AND ONE TAUGHT USING PROGRAMED WORKBOOKS. EACH GROUP RECEIVED THE SAME LIST OF WORDS SELECTED BY THE AUTHORS. AT THE END OF THE EXPERIMENT, THE CHILDREN WERE TESTED FOR VOCABULARY IMPROVEMENT. THE SCORES OF EACH GROUP WERE STATISTICALLY COMPARED WITH EVERY OTHER GROUP. THE RESULTS SHOWED A STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT IN VOCABULARY GAIN FOR THE MACHINE-TAUGHT GROUP OVER THE CONTROL GROUP AND FOR THE WORKBOOK-TAUGHT GROUP OVER THE CONTROL GROUP, BUT NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE WAS FOUND BETWEEN THE MACHINE-TAUGHT AND THE WORKBOOK-TAUGHT GROUPS. THE AUTHORS CONCLUDED THAT PROGRAMED INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS TEND TO INCREASE READING SKILLS AND ARE FEASIBLE FOR USE WITH THE POPULATION SAMPLED. (LB)