Development of the Mandarin Hearing in Noise Test for Children

Abstract

Objectives: To develop a Mandarin version of the Hearing in Noise Test for Children (MHINT-C) and examine the maturational effects on sentence recognition.

Design: Sentences suitable for evaluating children aged 6–18 years were selected from the adult MHINT to form 12 lists of 10 MHINT-C sentences (Study 1). List equivalence, inter-list reliability, response variability, and maturational effects on sentence recognition were examined using the MHINT-C (Study 2).

Study sample: A total of 246 children aged 6.1–17.11 years were included. Six children participated in Study 1; the rest were included in Study 2. To compare these results with adults, 20 native Mandarin-speaking adults aged 18 or above were included in Study 2.

Results: MHINT-C list equivalency, inter-list reliability, and response variability were similar to those of the adult MHINT and the Cantonese HINT for children. Sentence recognition in children reached adult-like performance around age 8 in quiet and at ages 15 and 14 in front and side noise conditions, respectively.

Conclusions: The MHINT-C can reliably measure sentence recognition in quiet and noise in Mandarin-speaking children. Age-specific correction factors were established.