A study demonstrated that young children who have difficulty with phonics can be taught to read through other methods, that phonics is only one of the many useful strategies that a child can employ, and that many contextual strategies are easier to learn and more reliable than phonics. A case study was conducted during an intervention with a young child who was identified as being at-risk of reading failure. The approach used was a series of successive steps. Stage 1 was word-collection; i.e., broadening the little girl's repertoire of known words by focusing her attention on print in the environment. Stage 2 involved generating sentences with words that she recognized. Stage 3 involved the creation of homemade books using sentences which she had already successfully read. Stage 4 was called "real reading for a reason," with books divided into three groups: books the child knew by heart; books she was familiar with but had not memorized; and books that were completely new to her. As a result of the study, certain truths seem evident: (1) print awareness should precede phonics instruction; (2) phonics should be implemented on a need-to-know basis; and (3) when phonics is used, other strategies should be equally emphasized. It is too often the practice that the child is remediated to fit the method, whereas it is the conclusion of this study that the method should be adapted to fit the child. (Fifteen references are attached. The appendix consists of transcripts of 11 slides, including a list of readiness behaviors, sample writing and writing materials from the study, an outline of the four-stage process to examples.) (MG)