Relation of backward masking and frequency discrimination to reading and language among 5-12 year old children

Psychoacoustic adaptive threshold estimation procedures were implemented as “computer games” to measure, with no experimenter intervention, backward detection masking and frequency discrimination in 54 children aged 5–12 years. Assessments of the subjects’ pure-tone hearing thresholds, language abilities, and reading skills were also made. Thresholds were successfully obtained for backward masked pure tone detection, and for pure tone frequency discrimination (unmasked and backward masked). Receptive language ability was significantly correlated with backward masking and reading skills were significantly correlated with backward masking and frequency discrimination, consistent with an auditory processing deficit hypothesis in reading and language impairments.