THE GOALS OF THE REPORTED RESEARCH WERE (1) TO EVALUATE THE HEARING IN EARLY-ELEMENTARY-SCHOOL-AGED CHILDREN IN A REGULAR PUBLIC SCHOOL READING PROGRAM, (2) TO COMPARE THE AUDITORY AND PERCEPTUAL ABILITIES OF CHILDREN WHO CAN AND CHILDREN WHO CANNOT DO THE NORMAL READING FOR THEIR GRADE, AND (3) TO SEARCH FOR RELATIONS BETWEEN READING ACHIEVEMENT AND CENTRAL AUDITORY SKILLS. SUBJECTS WERE SELECTED FROM THIRD-GRADE PUBLIC SCHOOL CHILDREN AND WERE DIVIDED INTO A CONTROL GROUP (NORMAL READING) AND AN EXPERIMENTAL GROUP (LOW READING), EACH GROUP CONSISTING OF 41 SUBJECTS. SELECTION CRITERIA WERE BASED ON PERFORMANCE SCORES FOR THE STANFORD ACHIEVEMENT TEST, THE CALIFORNIA MENTAL MATURITY SCALE, AND THE PEABODY PICTURE VOCABULARY TEST. SUBJECTS WERE TESTED UNDER CONDITIONS OF LOW PASS FILTERED SPEECH, ACCELERATED SPEECH, DUAL DISTORTION, AND COMPETING MESSAGES. RESULTS DEMONSTRATED SIGNIFICANT CORRELATION BETWEEN READING ACHIEVEMENT AND AUDITORY ABILITIES WHICH INDICATED THAT MEASURES OF CENTRAL HEARING MAY BE OF PROGNOSTIC VALUE RELATIVE TO FUTURE READING ACHIEVEMENT AND/OR DISABILITY. THE FINDINGS SUGGESTED THAT (1) TESTS OF CENTRAL AUDITORY ABILITIES MAY MAKE POSSIBLE EARLY IDENTIFICATION OF CHILDREN WHO WILL EXPERIENCE DIFFICULTY IN PHONICS LEARNING DURING THE READING READINESS PROGRAM, AND (2) THE COMPETING MESSAGES TECHNIQUE MIGHT BE USEFUL IN EVALUATING THE CENTRAL MECHANISM OF HEARING OF CHILDREN CONSIDERED TO BE MENTALLY HANDICAPPED OR BRAIN DAMAGED. (WB)