Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a specific therapy that deaf or hard of hearing children need? 

Early intervention is key to unlocking spoken language for babies who are deaf and or hard of hearing. Auditory Verbal Therapy (AVT) focuses on coaching the parents or carers of the child in the use of Auditory Verbal strategies and techniques in everyday activities and play so that every opportunity is used to develop the child’s listening brain and spoken language skills.

In order for the therapy to work, the child’s technology i.e. cochlear implant, Baha or hearing aid needs to be working properly. This is where the Ling sounds come in.

What are the Ling 6 Sounds?

They were developed in the late 1970s by Daniel Ling, an Aural Habilitation specialist, whose teaching methods are still used around the world today. The Ling sounds are different sounds from low to high pitch. They are used as a daily assessment to check one’s access to the range of speech sounds. Hearing this range of speech sounds is needed to learn spoken language. If the child can hear the Ling sounds with their technology on, we know it is working properly.

The Ling Six Sounds are as follows: “ah, oo, ee, mm, sh, ss”. What matters most is that they are paired with language so that they become meaningful, hence the use of toys. That’s where play and toys are used to create these associations. We are, after all, training the brain to hear. 

What is the LMH Sound Check? 

The Ling sound check has recently been extended to include 4 more sounds, the test is now referred to as ‘The LMH Screener”. Also known as ‘The 10 Ling Madell Hewitt Sound Test’ referring to Dr Hewitt and Dr Madell who developed it, or as ‘low, middle, high’ referring to the speech sounds it checks for. 

The ‘LMH Screener’ offers more information regarding the mid-frequencies and allows for better audibility and discrimination in very important speech sounds. The four additional sounds provide a better, more balanced sound check. The four additional sounds are “n”, “h”, “z” and “j”. 

What materials are used?  

The Ling 6 sounds are used for listening checks and begin in infancy and continue throughout life.

The Olipop Ling sound toys would be used with infants till around age two as they will allow the infant child to learn the Ling sounds by associating them to the toys.

The Ling Six sounds associated with toys are:

“ah”: aeroplane
“oo”: train
“ee”: mouse (or monkey or spider)
“m”: ice cream (or some other type of food)
“sh”: baby
“ss” snake

The Olipop Ling Sound Puzzles would be used with older toddlers once they have made the associations to the pictures as they include the extra sounds that are included in the LMH sound test.

“n”: an index finger waving side to side (or a cold drawing on a wall)

“z”: a bee
“j”: frog (or kangaroo)
“h”:dog

The Ling sound toys are intended to be used up until the age of two or three and then the Flat LMH puzzles and Boxed LMH puzzles can be introduced for older toddlers and used through childhood and adolescence.

Why were these speech sounds chosen to be used? 

Each of the six sounds is intended to cover a complete range of speech sounds from low to high frequency – such as ‘sh’ and ‘s’ sounds.

Frequency is also commonly known as ‘pitch.’ If the child can hear all of the six sounds, your child will likely be able to hear you speak, sing and read to them….especially in a quiet room and you, as the speaker, are close by.

The four new sounds provide a better more balanced sound check.

How should the sounds be said? 

They should be said in a normal conversational volume, without the child seeing your mouth. No exaggerating the sounds by making them louder or longer or by repeating them over and over.

When the child is an infant, you can make the sounds in an interesting sing-song melody. As your child gets older however, you want to present each of the sounds at the same loudness and duration as though they were being used in a word. Remember to mix things up and say the sounds in a different order each day. Make sure to pause long enough between each sound to give your child time to respond.

Why should I do a daily listening check for my child? 

Firstly, to make sure the hearing technology that the child is using is consistently transmitting complete speech information to the brain. Without consistent auditory information to create pathways in the brain, speech cannot develop.

Who can administer the Ling 6 or LMH sound check? 

Anyone! The sound checks can be done by anyone who wants to know that the child has access to the speech sounds and their hearing technologies are functioning optimally.

Family, caregivers, teachers, speech/language pathologists and audiologists.

What if the child doesn’t show behavioral changes after a sound is said? 

If your child is not responding to one or more of the six Ling sounds or the LMH sounds, then contact your paediatric audiologist. This could be because there is an issue with the hearing technology that your child is using.

Can I purchase wholesale?

Absolutely, if you are interested in ordering wholesale, please contact us.