Pitch discrimination, or the ability to differentiate stimuli using auditory frequency, may be an important correlate of language acquisition. Research consistently finds that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have differences in auditory discrimination abilities. However, studies linking these abilities to delays or impairments in language acquisition have yielded mixed results. Methodological differences in measurement and sample may account for this variability, in part because evaluating pitch abilities in young children and individuals with cognitive delays presents a number of practical challenges, and because retrospective recall of the course of language acquisition is often inaccurate. We present a novel behavioral pitch discrimination measure which is suitable for use with individuals who are unable to make forced-choice same/different judgments. This task minimizes cognitive and linguistic requirements, instead relying on reaction time (RT) differences as a proximal measure of the perception of auditory cues. Study 1 demonstrates that performance of adults on this novel measure correlates strongly with performance on a traditional forced-choice same/different auditory discrimination paradigm. Study 2 presents data from children 3-9 years old, demonstrating that RT facilitation effects map onto discrimination difficulty and indicating that this task is sensitive to individual differences in discrimination. Due to challenges posed during the COVID-19 pandemic, planned data collection from children with ASD was not possible. Study 3 presents an online study investigating the theoretical link between auditory processing, phonological learning, and language acquisition milestones, in a sample of children with ASD or typical development. Results suggest that children with ASD may not make use of auditory strengths for verbal learning. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]