This article focuses on a concept that has rarely been studied in beginning reading research--a child's concept of word in text. Recent examinations of this phenomenon suggest that a child's ability to match spoken words to written words while reading--a concept of word in text--plays a pivotal role in early reading development. In this article, the author summarizes the research on children's concept of word, relates this phenomenon to beginning readers' developing phoneme awareness, and describes a set of instructional recommendations that teachers can use to help emergent readers take their first steps into contextual reading. (Contains 1 table.)