[The new Mainz Audiometric Test for Children aged 3-7 years (MATCH) in noise : Design, normalization, and validation].

Background The Mainz Audiometric Test for Children (MATCH) was originally developed for children aged 3-7 years and validated in quiet conditions. Objective The present study aimed to extend the MATCH to testing in noise, to establish normative data, and to validate the test under these conditions. Materials and methods A total of 103 children aged 3 years and 3 months to 7 years and 7 months participated, including 76 with normal hearing and 27 with a hearing impairment. Recruitment took place via local kindergartens (mainly normal-hearing children) and the Department of Phoniatry and Pediatric Audiology at the University Medical Center Mainz (mainly hearing-impaired children). To account for age-specific differences, children were divided into three groups: (1) < 4.5 years (n = 28), (2) 4.5-5.5 years (n = 35), (3) > 5.5 years (n = 40). Testing was performed monaurally using a touchscreen-based picture-pointing task, with adaptive determination of the speech reception threshold (SRT) in noise. Results The SRTs improved with age: -4.6 dB SNR (< 4.5 years), -7.4 dB SNR (4.5-5.5 years), and -9.3 dB SNR (> 5.5 years) at 71.4% speech intelligibility. The slope of the psychometric functions increased with age, while variability and test duration decreased. Test-retest reliability was high (r = 0.84), and results correlated significantly with pure-tone audiometry (r = 0.75). Conclusion The MATCH in noise is a reliable and child-appropriate tool for assessing speech reception thresholds as early as preschool age. It addresses a methodological gap in existing procedures, which typically provide valid results only from school age onwards, and enables early and differentiated evaluation of hearing aid outcomes in children with hearing impairment.