A study of auditory discrimination with disadvantaged preschool children

In accordance with the above recommendation of Templin (1957), the first purpose of the present study was to explore the use of the Pronovost and Dumbleton testing technique with three-to-five years old children of disadvantaged backgrounds. The second purpose of the study was to further explore some of the problems in using such a test, for the child's ability to perform appears to depend in part upon his familiarity with and knowledge about the objects pictured, his grasp of the "like-different" concept, and hi ability to understand and follow directions. The third purpose of the present study was to use knowledge gained in the above exploration to devise an auditory discrimination training program which would be used to test out the hypothesis that a more structured program would be of benefit in training disadvantaged children in specific language skills.