The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness ot two training sequences designed to increase auditory discrimination in preschool educationally disadvantaged children. Auditory discrimination is important because, among other reasons, studies have shown the existence of a high positive correlation between a child's ability to listen and his ability to read. It was hypothesized that the environment of disadvantaged youth produces so much noise that a blocking of individual sounds occurs. One hundred and six Head Start children took part in this study. The first training group listened to tapes containing 12 categories of sounds familiar to children. The second training group listened to narrative materials played on tape recorders. Posttraining test scores showed that group one children performed better than group two children for both verbal discrimination and following directions. Both training groups performed better than the control group, and girls generally performed better than boys. (WD)