In this paper, Piagetian stages are discussed in relation to the internalization of key vocabulary words by children. Research studies that indicate a parallel development using Sylvia Ashton-Warner's idea of key vocabulary of children are briefly discussed. The author agrees that three studies do not completely prove a hypothesis, however they tend to support the proposition that the concept of children and their key words has its origins in the comparable quality of conservation as explored by Piaget. The author indicates that if Piaget is right in that children move through sensorimotor, preoperational stages--differing in ages but not in sequence--to that concrete operational stage of thorough understanding, then a similar kind of development must take place as children proceed through the years to the operation of learning to read and write. (WR)