A 3-year study concerning teaching a phonics-oriented kindergarten readiness program of letter recognition and beginning consonant sounds was discussed. Sixty-eight children attending kindergarten in a suburban middle and upper-middle class community composed the sample. The experimental group consisted of 33 children; the control group consisted of 35. Groups were considered equivalent through random assignment to kindergarten classes. All children included were considered to have normal hearing as measured by recent school examinations for hearing acuity. After a 10-week instructional period in phonics-oriented material for the experimental group and a similar nonphonics-oriented instructional period for the control group, the Wepman Auditory Discrimination Test and the New York State Readiness Test were administered. The significantly higher scores on the NYS Readiness Test supported the hypothesis that the phonics program would enhance the readiness of the children. However, the hypothesis that kindergarten children who received phonics training as part of the readiness program would show significantly higher scores in auditory discrimination than children who did not was not only rejected but also yielded results to the contrary. Further research in this area was recommended. References are included. (CL)