This study investigated developmental trends of certain oral-reading skills for first-, second-, and third-grade children instructed under the Distar Reading Program and the Holt Basic Reading System. The oral-reading skills studied were the overall speed and the accuracy of reading words spelled regularly and irregularly. Ten subjects comprised each of six experimental groups. Ten first-grade children and ten second-grade children who were instructed in each of the two reading programs read selections from their own instructional materials. Two groups of ten third-grade children instructed in each reading program were tested in a transfer situation by reading five graded paragraphs. The ten third-grade Distar students received that instruction during the first two grades. They were instructed with the Houghton Mifflin reading program during the third-grade year. The results generally indicated that there was no difference between grades or between methods in oral-reading speed scores or in accuracy of reading words spelled regulary or irregularly. Significant differences were found only within the Distar sample, where higher scores in both speed and accuracy were noted on regularly spelled words for students in the third grade. (Author/MKM)