Cognitive confusion is the common state of young persons in regard to concepts of units of writing. In the past 10 years, research has accumulated to show that all children pass through the important stage of initial cognitive confusion in learning to read. Children often confuse "writing" with "drawing,""letter" with "number," and so on. Cognitive confusion is a natural outcome of normal environmental conditions which cannot be avoided, but if it persists too long it may prevent the child from understanding the task of learning to read. Several studies about helping children to develop language concepts have been conducted. The general key to improving this kind of concept learning is the use of the language-experience approach. Children need experiences of spoken and written language which are relevant to them and which allow them to discover the functions of reading and writing. (TS)