Culturally disadvantaged children are characterized as having neither the proper amount of physical stimuli nor the opportunity to engage in many first-hand and vicarious experiences. Emphasis is placed on the ideas that a teacher's attitude is of utmost importance to a disadvantaged child's success in school and that teaching strategies should be chosen to provide the child with opportunities to participate actively in an effective learning process. Three general reading programs used for culturally disadvantaged children in the primary grades are described. One is a form of the basal reader method where the specially prepared materials provide reading matter said to utilize the experiences and the language patterns of urban disadvantaged children. Another, the language-experience approach, uses child-dictated or child-written experience charts or stories as the major materials for reading instruction. The third approach uses self-directive dramatization and individualized instruction. The author recommends a combination of all three, with the language-experience approach used as the introduction to reading. (NH)