Visual intelligibility of consonants: a lipreading screening test with implications for aural rehabilitation

A lipreading screening test consisting of 100 consonant-vowel (CV) syllables was prepared on videotape and presented to subjected with normal hearing and vision. The results of visual consonant confusions revealed nine homophenous categories with high test-retest reliability. Based upon these categories, obtained under ideal viewing conditions, criterion levels of performance were specified in an attempt to determine the need for place of articulation instruction during lipreading training. Examples of confusion patterns from hearing-impaired observers are shown and implications for visual training are presented.