Reading instruction and remediation are best grounded when based on obseruation ofthe continuities among various problems in reading The problems of reading acquisition, reading ski14 and reading disability are linked by their shared connection to word decoding. Learning to read depends on eventual (but not initial) mastery of coding procedures, and even skilled reading depends on coding pmcesses that are low in cost to processing resources. Reading disability may also be understood as representing a point on an ability continuum that contains a wide range of coding ability. Instructional goals of word reading skill, including rapid and fluent word recognition, follow from these considerations.