The advantages of teaching beginning reading with the use of the Initial Teaching Alphabet (i.t.a.) and some of the questions which are raised pertaining to its use are discussed. The difficulties which many children experience in learning to read with traditional orthography (T.O.) are pointed out. These include the variety of patterns for any one letter and the different sounds represented by the same letter. In contrast, i.t.a. is always lowercase and has 44 characters which consistently represent sounds of the English language. It is shown that efforts were made to retain as many of the characteristics of T.O. as possible; thus all but two of the Roman alphabet characters are used, and 15 of the 20 augmentations are similar to T.O. In addition, the top half of the letters have been left almost undisturbed while the discriminating features of the new letters are in the lower half of the line of print, a characteristic which facilitates transition to T.O. Questions pertaining to later reading are concerned chiefly with transition to T.O., learning to spell correctly, and the grasping of etymological roots present in T.O. The author presents his view that spelling and etymology can best be taught after children have acquired fluency in reading and there is no need to teach either before the transition to T.O. has been made. (CH)