The study investigates two hypotheses concerning the reported low incidence of reading disabilities among children in China and Japan compared to the United States. The first hypothesis suggests that the difference lies in the structure of the written language and the second, that the difference is related primarily to differences in the degree of involvement by parents to their young children's scholastic achievement. Evidence related to these two hypotheses would be obtained by testing five- and seven-year-old boys in Hong Kong, in a city in Japan such as Sendai, and in Minneapolis on a series of tasks including (a) achievement tests, (b) tests of general information and vocabulary, and (c) tasks involving a variety of cognitive abilities. Half of the children would be tested prior to their entrance into school, and half after they had completed the first grade. An effort would be made to assess the influences of family life on the children's scholastic achievement and general cognitive development by interviewing the mothers about the children's daily experiences, and about their efforts to instruct their children and to facilitate cognitive development.