Inferior auditory temporal processing has been postulated as causally linked to phonological processing deficits in disabled readers with concomitant oral language delay (LDRDs), and absent in specifically disabled readers with normal oral language (SRDs). This investigation compared SRDs, LDRDs and normal readers aged 7–10 years on measures of auditory temporal processing (temporal order judgement) and phonological decoding (nonword reading). LDRDs exhibited deficits in temporal order judgement compared with normal readers, from whom SRDs did not differ significantly. These findings suggest that auditory temporal processing and oral language are related; however, very large within-group variability in the auditory temporal processing data further suggests that this relationship prevails in only a proportion of disabled readers with concomitant oral language weakness. In nonword reading, LDRDs performed worst of all, but SRDs also exhibited significant deficits compared with normal readers. Taken together, our results preclude the conceptualisation of temporal processing deficits as the unitary cause of phonological and language deficits in disabled readers.