This paper details the development of two commercial programs for the instruction of language skills. The first, a reading program for the first two months of first grade, is designed to move children from speaking to reading without experiencing failure. In teaching prereading phonics skills (letter recognition, letter writing, awareness of letter-name sounds, and syntax matching), emphasis is placed on the child's active response to speech rather than on decoding. The second program, intended for use by poor spellers in the middle grades, subordinates correct spelling to vocabulary growth. Attention to word or sentence structure is perceived to be counterproductive to idea transfer; language experience and knowledge of word meaning are assumed to be more effective facilitators of higher spelling accuracy than is the teaching of spelling mechanics. Word recognition techniques stressing meaning, as well as team and game approaches and choral or dramatic reading, are suggested to improve spelling ability. (KS)