[Study on consonant confusion in Japanese patients with sensorineural hearing loss]

The speech discrimination scores of a 57S word list were analyzed in 180 patients with sensorineural hearing loss. Confusion matrices were made on consonant groups of voiceless, voiced and nasal consonants. In succession, the incidence of consonants was compared between the 57S word list and Japanese conversation. Consonants with high incidence in Japanese conversation were t, h, d, g, m, and n. Patients with sensorineural hearing loss are apt to confuse t and h to k, d to b or r, g to b, d or r, m to n or r, and n to m or r. It is effective to correct these instances of consonant confusion, for improving conversational ability in Japanese patients with sensorineural hearing loss.