EVIDENCE SUGGESTS READING ABILITY IS RELATED TO OTHER COMMUNICATION SKILLS SUCH AS LISTENING AND SPEAKING. DISTRUPTION IN THE PROCESS OF RECEIVING, ANALYZING, AND UTILIZING AUDITORY STIMULI MAY HAVE DELETERIOUS EFFECTS UPON A CHILD'S DEVELOPMENT OF READING SKILLS, ESPECIALLY IF THIS DISRUPTION OCCURS IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN. THOSE GROWING UP IN NOISE-FILLED SLUM AREAS MAY, THUS, NEED AUDITORY DISCRIMINATION TRAINING IN ORDER TO DERIVE MAXIMUM BENEFIT FROM READING TRAINING. KINDERGARTEN MAY BE THE OPTIMUM TIME FOR THIS TRAINING. STUDIES SHOW THAT THE WEPMAN AUDITORY DISCRIMINATION TEST CORRELATED WITH FEW OTHER MEASURES OF VERBAL SKILLS. MORE SIGNIFICANT RELATIONSHIPS WERE FOUND BETWEEN WEPMAN SCORES AND VERBAL MEASURES FOR RETARDED READERS THAN NORMALS AND MORE FOR FIRST GRADERS THAN FOR FIFTH GRADE CHILDREN AMONG SUBJECTS UNSELECTED FOR READING ABILITY. CHARACTERISTICS OF POOR READERS WERE FOUND TO BE THAT THEY HAVE MORE DIFFICULTY WITH AUDITORY DISCRIMINATION, MORE DIFFICULTY WITH SHIFTING BETWEEN VISUAL AND AUDITORY MODALITIES, AND THEY ARE MORE INEFFICIENT AT A SERIAL LEARNING TASK WHEN THE STIMULI ARE AUDITORY RATHER THAN VISUAL. HERE AGAIN THE PERFORMANCE OF POORER READERS RELATED TO BETTER PARALLELS THAT OF YOUNGER CHILDREN AS COMPARED WITH OLDER. THIS TENDS TO SUPPORT DE HIRSCH'S HYPOTHESIS OF "NEUROPHYSIOLOGICAL IMMATURITY" IN MANY CHILDREN WITH READING AND LANGUAGE DIFFICULTIES. ONE CAN THUS POSTULATE THAT MINIMUM LEVEL OF AUDITORY DISCRIMINATION SKILL IS NECESSARY FOR THE ACQUISITION OF READING AND OF GENERAL VERBAL SKILLS. ONCE THAT MINIMUM LEVEL IS REACHED AUDITORY DISCRIMINATION MAY NO LONGER BE HIGHLY CORRELATED WITH THESE ABILITIES.