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This study examines differences in the development of visual perception and auditory discrimination skills between Nez Perce Indian children and white children from the general population at the Lapwai public schools at the kindergarten age. Five areas of visual perception were tested with the Developmental Test of Visual Perception, and the ability to recognize differences that exist between the phonemes used in English speech was tested with the Wepman Auditory Discrimination Test. It was found that differences in visual perception and auditory discrimination exist between the Nez Perce Indian child and the white child enrolled in the Lapwai public school kindergarten. It was further concluded that the Nez Perce Indian child was not as prepared as his white contemporaries to succeed in reading tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]