Auditory pattern recognition and brief tone discrimination of children with reading disorders Marianna M. Walker a, * , Gregg D. Givens a , Jerry L. Cranford b , Don Holbert c , Letitia Walker a a Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, School of Allied Health Sciences, Belk Annex 2, Ogelsby Drive, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858, United States b Department of Communication Disorders, Louisiana State University Health Science Center, New Orleans, LA, United States c Department of Biostatistics, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, United States Received 4 May 2005; received in revised form 21 December 2005; accepted 22 December 2005 Abstract Auditory pattern recognition skills in children with reading disorders were investigated using perceptual tests involving discrimination of frequency and duration tonal patterns. A behavioral test battery involving recognition of the pattern of presentation of tone triads was used in which individual components differed in either frequency or duration. A test involving measurement of difference limens for long and short duration tones was also administered. In comparison to controls, children with reading disorders exhibited significantly higher error rates in discrimination of duration and frequency patterns, as well as larger brief tone frequency difference limens. These results suggest that difficulties in the recognition and processing of auditory patterns may co-occur with decoding deficits in children with reading disorders. Learning outcomes: (1) As a result of this activity, the participant will be able to identify a relationship between reading and temporal processing. (2) As a result of this activity, the reader will be able to discuss the difference between sight–word decoding and phonological decoding. (3) As Journal of Communication Disorders 39 (2006) 442–455 Abbreviations: DL, frequency difference limen; ISI, interstimulus interval; PPVT-III, Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test—third edition; SPL, speech perception level; WISC-III, Weschler Intelligence Test for Children, third edition; WRMTR, Woodcock Reading Mastery Test—Revised * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 252 737 1216; fax: +1 252 737 1111. E-mail address: walkerm@ecu.edu (M.M. Walker). 0021-9924/$ – see front matter # 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jcomdis.2005.12.006