PURPOSE: to compare performance of children with or without alterations in reading and writing skills acquisition in the Simplified Auditory Processing Test (SAPT) and the Pediatric Speech Intelligibility (PSI) tests. METHODS: twenty-eight female and male children aged 8-12 took part in this study. The subjects did the Academic Achievement Test (TDE) in order to be placed in the study group or control group and, for the assessment of hearing abilities, they took the SAPT and the PSI tests. RESULTS: no statistically significant association was found between performances in tests for hearing processing and the group with learning problems although alterations were observed in the study group more frequently than in the control group in all tests. In SAPT, the test which detected more alterations was the test for verbal Sequential Memory; however, the Nonverbal Sequential Memory test was the one which showed more differences between the groups. CONCLUSION: no statistically significant association between performances were found both by the HPSA and the PSI tests in children with or without alterations in reading and writing skills acquisition.