Auditory discrimination as a predictor of reading for bilingual Mexican-American migrant children

The performance of 61 bilingual Mexican-American migrant children, ages 8 to 14 yr., was compared for Spanish and English formats of the Wepman Auditory Discrimination Test. The two formats correlated significantly with each other and both were predictive of reading recognition as measured by the Peabody Individual Achievement Test. The data suggest that auditory discrimination as measured by the popular Wepman test may not be a pure perceptual skill but may be language bound. Consequently auditory discrimination as a pure perceptual skill may not be accurately assessed in bilingual or monolingual Spanish-speaking children if the Wepman test is used in its published format. A Spanish-based alternative is suggested for assessing auditory discrimination for uses other than reading prediction.