Designed to contribute toward providing opportunities for young children to enlist their own powerful intelligence in the construction of their understanding of reading and writing, this book is a collection of six studies presented at the International Reading Association's Eleventh World Congress. An introductory chapter, "Discovering Children's Inventions of Written Language" (Yetta M. Goodman), discusses the prehistory and history of Piagetian studies and presents an overview of the chapters. Other chapters include: (1) "Literacy Development: Psychogenesis" (Emilia Ferreiro); (2) "Literacy Development and Pedagogical Implications: Evidence from the Hebrew System of Writing" (Liliana Tolchinsky Landsmann): (3) "The Language Young Children Write: Reflections on a Learning Situation" (Ana Teberosky); (4) "A Passage to Literacy: Learning in a Social Context" (Clotilde Pontecorvo and Cristina Zucchermaglio); (5) "Applying Psychogenesis Principles to the Literacy Instruction of Lower-Class Children in Brazil" (Esther Pillar Grossi); and (6) "Children's Knowledge about Literacy Development: An Afterword" (Yetta M. Goodman). (Four pages of references are attached.) (RS)