The acquisition of reading and writing skills is central in primary school. It appears that many pupils have reading and writing difficulties. A project, called 'Prevention of Reading Difficulties’ was carried out in the Netherlands between 1978 and 1985. Its intellectual basis draws largely on the current debate on how to improve schools, instruction and education as quickly as possible and with the greatest substantial, cumulative and lasting effect. The relationships between research, development and diffusion were illustrated using the output-oriented model proposed by Gideonse. The acquisition of reading and writing skills is central in primary school. Yet it appears that approximately a quarter of the pupils experience reading and writing difficulties in the sense that they do not achieve the expected level of reading and writing skills at a given age. School officials ask for school operations or development projects designed to remove these difficulties.