This study investigated how reading begins in speech. The subjects were nonreading kindergarten children divided into a control group of 20 students and an experimental group of 20 students. Both groups had an equal amount of discrimination practice upon the same sentences prior to test for word identification. The sentences for the experimental group differed from those for the control group in that the subjects and objects of the verb in their sentences had exchanged places. The results indicated that the subjects in both groups succeeded in identifying words as wholes, as predicted. The experimental group, as predicted, identified more words than did the control group. The mean number of responses per subject capable of responding did not differ significantly. Also, the data suggested that phrase structure indicators, "the" and "did," tended to be identified more often by a higher number of experimental subjects and that once these words were identified, several other identifications also occurred. (WR)