This paper describes the Ball-Stick-Bird reading system, which shows students how all the letters of the alphabet can be built with three basic forms: a circle (ball), a line (stick), and an angle (bird). The method also uses modified phonics and developmental linguistics, aids story reading by using capital letters in the beginning, and enhances story comprehension by laying out the story in idea units. Successful use of the system with individuals with various disabilities is documented. Evidence that low-intelligence subjects were able to learn to read advanced material with comprehension and to write stories led to development of a new paradigm of cognitive/neurological organization. This paradigm views story comprehension as so fundamental and overrepresented in the human brain that even a severely damaged brain can almost always call on this capacity. The fundamental unit of cognitive organization is the idea unit, which is actually a miniature story. The Ball-Stick-Bird method mimics the developmental process, by using idea units to build bigger stories. The idea unit, termed the "story engram," functions as a cognitive organizer and therefore structures conscious reality. As students learned to use the story engram to build bigger stories, they matured far beyond expectations because, having learned to impose a structure on the world around them, they saw themselves as having acquired a structure, an identity. (JDD)