The papers included this volume focus upon the reading problems faced by the child living in urban America. The scope of the papers encompasses such basic issues as "Social Variation in Language: Implications for Teaching Reading to Black Ghetto Children" and "The Training of Reading Teachers for the Disadvantaged." Other articles in this volume are: "The Effect of Training in the Cognitive Uses of Language Deficit of Disadvantaged Kindergarten Children,""Expanding Language Power of Young Black Children: A Literature Approach,""Reading Skills of Afros and Mexican-American Students,""i. t. a. as a Tool for Preventing Cumulative Language Deficit in Disadvantaged Children,""Influence of Nonstandard Dialect on Oral Reading Behavior of Fourth Grade Black Children under Two Stimuli Conditions," and "Implications of Some Current Issues and Practices for the Reading Teacher." (Author/WR)