A study examined which phonological skills, as primary skills, can more effectively be developed and lead to decoding skills in low-skilled kindergartners: (1) segmentation/blending, or (2) rhyming/first sound identification? Low-skilled kindergartners (n=61), who scored less than 4 items correctly in 3 out of 5 measures, were randomly assigned to one of the strategy groups, receiving instruction in small groups of 3-4, for 20-30 minutes each time, twice a week, over 10 weeks. Results indicated that both groups were effective in improving target skills, as well as reading and writing readiness skills. Findings suggest that there was no significant difference between the groups and neither group demonstrated successful transfer of trained skills to the untrained skills, or sufficient generalization to reading or spelling novel words. The study supports other research using both training strategies and reminds researchers of the challenge in promoting generalization ability. (Includes 6 tables of data; contains 29 references.) (Author/CR)