Ling Sounds

A question we are often asked by parents/carers is, “How do I know what my child can hear?”

Audiologists (the people that assess a child’s hearing) can discuss a child’s test results but parents/carers observations help to describe how their child is benefitting from wearing hearing aids or cochlear implants. One type of observation is the Ling Six Sound Check.

What are Ling Sounds?

The Ling sounds were devised by Dr Daniel Ling who was an expert on the teaching of speech to deaf children. We use Ling sounds to check what children can hear with and without their hearing aids or cochlear implants.

The Ling sounds are six speech sounds ‘m’, ‘oo’, ‘ah’, ‘ee’, ‘sh’ and ‘s’ that represent all the frequencies (low, middle and high sounds) of sounds required to learn speech and spoken language.

Speech Sound Frequencies

Here are the sounds on an audiogram (a graph showing high, middle and low sounds and how loud those sounds are). Some sounds are seen twice because they are made up of two bursts of energy when we say them rather than just one.

Ling Sound Activities and Toys

There are lots of activities parents/carers can do at home every day and their Teacher of the Deaf will discuss and demonstrate them at each stage. For example, a very young listener might turn towards the sound made. Later, they may be taught to put rings on a stacker when they hear one of the sounds.

When children are first starting to learn to listen to the individual sounds, people may use toys to represent the six sounds. Children demonstrate their understanding by selecting the toys through listening during play.

Some examples of Ling toys include:

‘m’ – spoon, ice-cream, cake

‘oo’ – train, ghost, monkey, cow

‘ah’ – airplane, crocodile, sheep

‘ee’ – mouse,

‘sh’ – baby

‘s’ - snake

A child who is an experienced listener might repeat the Ling Six Sounds as they are said. Even young children can attempt to make the sounds. This indicates that they not only hear the sounds, but they can discriminate (listen and know the difference) between them.

The Ling Six Sounds check is most helpful if it is carried out every day as soon as the child puts on their hearing aids or cochlear implants. When parents/carers do a Ling Six check daily they can be immediately aware of differences in responses.

If families suspect there is a change in their child’s responses, sharing this information with their Teacher of the Deaf and/or Audiologist can help to identify changes in a child’s hearing levels or how well hearing aids or cochlear implants are working.

This means that any changes can be managed and supported sooner rather than later and the child can start each day ready to listen and learn.

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