The building of a repertoire of written words recognized on sight is an important prerequisite for complex reading skills. Coordination of certain sense modalities, when present in the learning of a new written word, increases the probability that this word will be retained over a period of time. This coordination involves specific intersensory transfers (intersensory transfer refers to the ability to translate information from one sensory mode to another). This paper analyzes current word recognition instructional methods in terms of their intersensory transfer components. A perceptual model of word recognition, based on perceptual memory research, is then presented. The model can be utilized as a basis to derive a new instructional technique for remediation of word recognition difficulties. (TO)