![]() ![]() How do I do the Ling Six Sound Check for children at different ages or listening skills levels? For all levels, it’s important to make sure that the child is responding to the sounds received through listening, not looking. Your voice is your most powerful tool to help your child, not your phone.įor what ages is the Ling Six Sound Check appropriate? The Ling Six Sound Check is for everyone! Though the methods we use to conduct the Check will vary based on age and developmental level (see more on that below), you are never too young to be hearing well, and you’re never old enough to be “past” the Ling Six Sound Check. Ultimately, we learn to listen so we can speak to other human beings, not press buttons on a device. With an app, we can’t make changes to test in distance or noise (again, more on why this is important below). This tells us nothing about the child’s ability to imitate the sound (more on why this is important below), and encourages guessing. Apps generally have the child touch a picture corresponding to the sound they hear, and then tell them right/wrong. Why? A few reasons: Our brains process recorded/electronic speech differently than live voice. If you don’t check the devices, then you cannot be sure that the child is hearing all of the language around them, and this is crucial for learning!Ĭan I use an app to do the Ling Six Sound Check? I recommend against using apps in general, including for the Ling Six Sound Check. How often should I do the Ling Six Sound Check? Frequently! You should perform a Ling Six Sound check every time the hearing devices are put in - in the morning, when they’re replaced after a nap, etc. Some add a “silent” trial (pausing between presenting the sounds) to make sure the listener is not guessing and can respond to the absence of sound by reporting, “No sound!” or, “I don’t hear anything.” ![]() Others add plosives like /p, t/ to check hearing abilities for very quiet sounds. Why do some people use more than six sounds in the Sound Check? Some people add additional high-frequency sounds, like /f, Θ/ (“f” and voiceless “th” as in “ think”), to see if the listening can hear very high-pitched sounds. You can read a more detailed explanation of formants HERE. This is because the sounds we hear are made up of formants, different bands of energy that combine to make one sound, like the chords on a piano. Note that some sounds seem to show up twice on the audiogram below. If a person can respond to all of these sounds, we can estimate that they have access to all of the sounds of speech. They cover low- to high-frequency speech sounds. Why do you use these particular sounds? The Ling Six Sounds span the length of the speech banana. What are the “Six Sounds”? The six Ling Sounds are: ah, oo, ee, m, sh, s (or, in the International Phonetic Alphabet /a, u, i, m, ∫, s/). Make sure all of the great language input you are giving your child each day isn’t going to waste - check those devices! A young child cannot tell us, “Hey, Mom, my hearing aid is not working today!” The child’s hearing device may be malfunctioning or need a new map, or the child’s hearing may have changed (for example, a progressive hearing loss), but until the child is a reliable reporter, we have no way to know this without checking ourselves. Without the Ling Six Sound Check, those hearing devices are just some very, very expensive earrings. Why is the Ling Six Sound Check important? Isn’t it enough that the child wears the hearing aids? Is it enough to say the sounds to myself while I listen to the hearing device using a stethoset (listening tube)? Though it might seem like it’s enough to check that the hearing device has a working battery and sounds good to you though a stethoset, this tells us nothing about how the child’s brain is using that sound. The Ling Six Sound Check was his invention, and so today, we continue to name this technique in his honor. His writings about speech acoustics and teaching speech to children with hearing loss form the foundation of much of today’s auditory verbal practice. Daniel Ling was a famous speech scientist and Auditory Verbal Therapist. ![]() Six sounds, okay… what could be complicated about that? Let’s break it down and look at the science behind this simple check that carries a whole lot of weight. The Ling Six Sound Check is a simple tool we use to ensure that hearing devices are working and giving the listener access to the sounds of speech. If a hearing aid, cochlear implant, or Baha has good batteries, then it should be working, right? Not so fast. ![]()
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