Over 200 children were tested to determine whether, of prospective first grade pupils, the 25% scoring lowest on tests of visual-motor-perceptual development would also be clustered in the lowest third of first grade performance on word recognition skills at the end of the year. Tests given upon entrance were the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, the Walking Board Motor Ability Test, the Winter Haven Form Copying, Visuals I, and Ocular Motility. Tests given in May were the Winter Haven, Visuals III, the Gates Primary Word Recognition, and California Low Primary Reading Test and Letter Matching Form. (Tests were also administered in March.) The Winter Haven was the best predictor of reading achievement with a correlation of .45 with composite reading scores, and 32 (67%) of the bottom 48 scorers on the Winter Haven were among the lowest 65 scorers on reading on the Gates Test. To evaluate modifiability of perceptual skills and their relation to reading abilities, 14 children who scored poorly on the pretests were assigned to two treatment groups. One group received daily 20-minute visual-motor-perceptual training and the other group did not" The groups were combined for reading instruction for 5 weeks in the spring. Learning improvement from March to May because of visual-motor-perceptual training was significant at the .05 level. (LE)