Performance of normal hearing preschool children on audiometric ling’s six sound test

Abstract

Introduction: Ling’s six sound test is a quick and simple test to ascertain access to speech sounds essential for development of optimum listening and speaking skills. However, most of the normative data available for Ling’s six sound test is adult based. Therefore, there is a need to develop normative data for subsequent use with children who are receiving early intervention procedures. This study aims at obtaining the awareness and identification thresholds for Ling’s six sounds for normal hearing preschool children between 3 to 6 years of age. Methods: Each of the six sounds of Ling’s six sound test namely; |a| |i| |u| |s| |sh| |m| were presented in the sound field through an audiometer to fifty 3 to 6-year-old children with normal hearing sensitivity in a sound treated room. Each child was explained the task and was conditioned well before the testing. Both awareness and identification thresholds were obtained. The lowest level at which the child responded was noted as the threshold. Results: The lowest threshold for awareness and identification was obtained for the sound |a| (10.3 dB HL and 15.4 dB HL respectively). whereas the highest threshold was obtained for the sound |s| (18.2 dB HL and 24 dB HL respectively. A significant difference was seen in thresholds across all the sounds for both awareness and identification. Conclusions: The differences seen in thresholds across all the sounds for both awareness and identification are due to several higher order factors as well as the acoustic and spectral features of each of the Ling’s six sounds.