Skilled reading depends upon a multiplicity of perceptual, linguistic, and cognitive processes; inadequate development of one or more of these processes may in turn lead to reading difficulty. This report considers some of the processes that may be especially problematic for the young reader. After an overview in which skilled reading is described as the product of both analytic and synthetic, or bottom-up and top-down, activities, potential sources of difficulty are discussed under three general headings: word recognition, syntactic processing, and semantic processing. (AA)