The document discusses reading readiness and emergent literacy. It defines reading readiness as the time when a child transitions from non-reader to reader. It discusses various reading theories including bottom-up processing, which views reading as acquiring a hierarchy of subskills, and top-down processing, which emphasizes the interactive and constructive nature of comprehension. Emergent literacy skills that young readers develop include recognizing letters of the alphabet, sight words, left-to-right progression, and visual discrimination, which is the ability to differentiate letters and objects. The document reviews reading readiness, emergent literacy skills, reading theories, and the importance of visual discrimination for learning.