Helping children gain an early sense of success in literacy is vital to their growth since it creates a foundation for future success. Because of learning difficulties demonstrated in early development, which may be triggered in part by changing modern lifestyles, teachers need to be sensitive to the issue of preventing learning problems from becoming serious disabilities. Demonstrating sensitivity to the child's emerging literacy and prior knowledge are steps in the right direction, and these can be aided by informal evaluation (which replaces standardized testing with observation, interaction and analysis) and a whole-language method of language instruction. These approaches can help children be successful during their school careers and throughout their lives. (One figure is appended.) (SG)