Performance of children aged 9 to 17 years on the SPIN test (Speech Perception in Noise) is described. The 11‐ and 13‐year‐olds performed significantly poorer than 15‐ and 17‐year‐olds, and this difference occurred primarily for high‐predictability sentences presented at a 0‐dB signal‐to‐babble ratio. Performance of nine‐year‐olds was significantly poorer than performance of 11‐year‐olds. Possible reasons for these differences are discussed.