After considering the advent of knowledge about prereading from a longitudinal perspective, this report then reviews the research on preschool children's attempts to read and offers a discussion of cross-sectional research on both prereading and beginning reading. The discussion is organized in terms of three hypothesized strands of prereading: reference, phonological awareness, and knowledge of terms and rules. When possible, the discussion is oriented toward the child's view of reading and its social and communicative value. The child's competencies and learning environment are featured in order to demonstrate that the proposed three-strand construct is supported by developmental and reading research and can be used to organize instructional questions. (Author/FL)