Analysis of consonant recognition scores of congenital sensorineural hearing impaired

The five lists of the Fairbanks Rhyme Test were presented to the better ear of twelve teenagers with bilateral, congenital, moderate to profound sensorineural hearing losses, at 20 dB above their speech reception thresholds. Analysis of the recognition scores revealed that the /s/ score of 69% was the highest. The average score for /d/ and /t/ of 48% was almost double the average score for /b/ and /p/ of 26%. The relatively high scores for /s/, /d/, and /t/, and low scores for /b/ and /p/ are different from what one would expect on basis of subjects' audiograms in relation to acoustic energy in these consonants.