Daniel Ling

Daniel Ling (March 16, 1926 to August 9, 2003) was a leading figure in developing methods for teaching speech to deaf children, work that gained international recognition and wide use in deaf education programs. He taught at McGill University as a professor of Graduate Studies in Aural Habilitation from 1973 to 1984, where he developed and refined auditory-verbal teaching techniques aimed at helping deaf children learn to listen and speak using their residual hearing. His most enduring contribution is the Ling Six Sound Test, a simple diagnostic tool built around six sounds, oo, ee, ah, m, s and sh, spanning the speech frequency range, that teachers and clinicians still use to check whether a deaf child's hearing aid or cochlear implant is working across that range. He later served as Dean of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Western Ontario from 1984 to 1991. In recognition of his contribution to deaf education, Ling was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1999 and granted Canadian armorial bearings in 2001.