The primary thesis of the "audread" model of language development is that children in a literate society first learn to think, then they learn to communicate and receive thoughts through oral language, and then they learn to communicate through written language (graphic representations). Four projects based on concepts from the audread model are an experimental evaluation of the extent to which first grade students learn to read their own and their peers' spoken language, the development of an experimental test for measuring adults' auding/reading comprehension abilities (decoding skills), a program designed to improve the oracy skills of primary school children, and a job-related literacy training program for adults. Analysis of these projects shows how the audread model affects them first by suggesting relationships among skills to be explored, and then by constraining the decisions related to content, sequence, and modality in evaluation and instruction. (A transcript of the discussion following presentation of the paper is included.) (Author/RL)