This volume is comprised of a collection of papers presented at an international researchers' colloquium in 1987. Tue introductory paper by Helmut Breuer concerns the part played by the child's early sensory-motor development as a bridge from speech to writing and its indirect effect on the child's emotional attitudes to school. On the basis of five sensory-motor dimensions a training program is determined, which can be evaluated with the aid of the results of numerous empirical studies. This point of view lays the theoretical groundwork for the colloquium. The general papers deal with the essential features of learned, dynamic and redundant activity systems, their formation and primary importance in the child's speech (Radigk), the effect of slight neurological disorders on the child's success at school (Alahuhta) and the importance of the verbal-sensory-motor level on the learning of foreign languages (Kemenyne-Gyimes). A strong correlation between the neurological base and school success in noted in pre-school education (Steffen) and in the impact of auditive structuring on reading and writing (Karma). The development of analytic language-specific methods for predicting difficulties and of training programs form core pedagogical tasks (Ruoho ). Adult analphabetics pose a separate problem, though it may be founded on the same theoretical basis (Kamper). The teaching of reading and learning difficulties apparent when the child starts school, as well as teaching techniques can be examined on the same theoretical grounds (Dummer, Kniest, Matilainen). Special aspects are taken up in regard to the Finnish day care system (Ojala), the position of the mentally-retarded in Swedish day care centers (Rosenqvist) and the "good start" (bon depart) principle employed in Polish pre-schools (Loebl). Tue same area of specialization is represented by such topics as the stimulation of the reading process (Zakrzewska), improving reading and writing abilities of pre-schoolaged children (Bogdanowicz & Roclawski) and voluntary co-operation between parents on behalf of children with dyslexia (Senftleben).