A Study on the Reference Values and Cutoff Criteria of Masking Level Difference for Children Aged 7-12 Years

The Masking Level Difference (MLD) test is one of the main instruments for investigating binaural interaction. Studies with children aged 7-12 years still disagree about the influence of age on test performance and present discordant reference values. This study aimed to verify the effect of age on the performance of children aged 7-12 years in the MLD test and to establish reference values and cutoff criteria for this age group. Fifty-nine children with normal hearing were organized in three groups according to their age: 7-8 (n = 20), 9-10 (n = 20), and 11-12 (n = 19) years. The participants completed the MLD test by Auditec^®. The Kruskal-Wallis statistical test was used to compare groups. Reference values were obtained by calculating mean, standard deviation, median, mode, and percentiles, while the cutoff criterion was obtained by subtracting two standard deviations from the mean. No statistically significant differences were observed between the groups regarding the MLD test measures. The mean MLD was 10.51 ± 1.84 dB and the cutoff point was set at 7 dB. Thus, reference values for the MLD test were established for children aged 7-12 years, who presented no effect of age on test performance.