What encompasses both speech and nonspeech sounds in terms of discriminability?

Auditory discrimination refers to the ability to identify and differentiate between various sounds, which includes both speech sounds (like phonemes in spoken language) and nonspeech sounds (like environmental noises or musical notes). This skill is essential for language development and literacy, as it enables individuals to notice differences and similarities in sounds, helping them to decode and comprehend spoken language.

In the context of the question, auditory discrimination is specifically focused on the skill of recognizing these sound differences, making it applicable to both types of sounds mentioned. Understanding auditory discrimination is crucial for early reading skills, as it lays the foundation for more advanced auditory processing abilities, such as phonemic awareness and phonological awareness, which are more specific to reading and language processing tasks.