Project Solid Start was designed to test the hypothesis that a carefully structured, integrated, and intensive program reinforcing the regular first grade curriculum in all aspects of the language arts would significantly reduce the numbers of children experiencing delay, difficulty, and failure in the acquisition of reading and writing skills. The program is a multidisciplinary team effort of two regular classroom teachers, a reading teacher, and a moderate special needs teacher, as well as a group of parent volunteers. Solid Start addresses two current concerns: reading and writing acquisition and the interface of regular and special education. In the program described, 16 children received 1-1.5 hours daily of small group teaching in reading and writing with the heaviest emphasis on reading. Most of the instructional materials were teacher-made. In the pilot year, all of the children passed the end-of-book test for the primer and met the mastery criteria on program-constructed instruments for evaluating oral reading. In addition, all the children were able to produce, without a model, both upper and lower case manuscript letters, correctly sized, spaced, and formed. When asked to cite the greatest benefit of the program, classroom teachers cited "attitude" even before skill growth. They felt that not having to talk with parents about possible learning disability and bypassing testing reduced family anxiety and contributed to the ease, confidence, and learning enthusiasm of the children. (RJC)