Initial reading and writing is one of the first skills developing processes the pupils will encounter when starting their compulsory education and has been a focus of research for many years and in many different areas of research. In this thesis we will outline some of the basic factors that more or less directly set the path of individual development in this field for each learner in Croatian schools in both the Croatian and English language acquisition. Firstly we will bring the focus on the historical development of different theories and their applications in teaching young learners to read and write, shifting from skill drilling to understanding the complexity of literacy development process and all determining factors. Further on we will go through these determining factors such as learner‟s age and developmental traits, and on the other hand more extrinsic factors such as the context in which education is takes place. We can see how the Croatian educational system in primary schools and its defining documents reflect on the textbook contents for the youngest participants in the last chapter, and prior to that, how different syllabi and programmes on teacher education institutions can take the impact on the level of competence for new teachers in means of understanding the main theories behind the early literacy development.