This paper describes the results of two studies of auditory processing in child aphasia, and their implication for understanding deviant language development. The term "aphasia" is discussed as it is used to describe adult and child language disorders. A first experiment on the auditory functioning in aphasic and nonaphasic children suggests that the auditory processing defect in child aphasia lies in short-term auditory storage or memory. A subsequent study, which sought to measure the relationship between stimulus duration and signal detection, had equivocal results which lead to speculation about signal threshold and internal filter. It is suggested that low frequencies present special problems for temporary storage and detection. A final conclusion states that either a phonological base is a requisite foundation of subsequent linguistic development, or that auditory dysfunction does not adequately account for developmental aphasia. (AM)