Best Ling Toys for Babies: How We Chose Our Six (And Why)

The six Ling toys we use every day with our hard of hearing daughter—one for each Ling sound, all silent, all baby-sized, some free.

By

Daisy Bell

Published

February 2022

Updated

April 15, 2026

3 min read

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What Are Ling Toys and Why Do They Need to Be Silent?

Ling toys are the six objects used in Listening and Spoken Language therapy to help babies and young children learn to detect, discriminate, and identify the key sounds of speech. Each toy represents one of the six Ling sounds: AH, OO, EE, SH, MM, and SS. When you hold up the toy and make its sound—"ahhh!" or "shhh!" or "mmmm"—your baby learns to connect the sound they hear to something they can see.

The critical rule: the toy itself must be completely silent. If the toy makes its own sounds, rattles, or jingles, it competes with the sound you're making with your voice. This is why we ended up removing the rattle from our monkey—and why "does it make any noise?" was our first question when evaluating every candidate.

Here is the set we landed on—one toy per sound, chosen with help from our speech-language pathologist and the seven guidelines we developed along the way.

AH — The Airplane (Janod Diego Spirit Plane)

Janod Diego Spirit Plane in turquoise with propeller and wooden wheels for practicing the "ah" Ling sound in speech therapy for hard of hearing babies — We loved using the Diego Spirit Plane by Janod as our AH ling toy, but unfortunately it appears to be discontinued!

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Why we love it: Beautiful French wooden toy, with a gorgeous bright blue color, and a cute bird pilot, with fun spinning features, and doesn’t make its own sounds or light up.

While it’s on the larger side for our Ling toys, it’s still small enough to hide behind our back, or bring to the park.

This particular plane appears to be discontinued, but we found a great alternative: Hape's adorable wood mini airplane!

Hape wooden mini airplane in blue with natural wood wheels for practicing the "ah" Ling sound in speech therapy for hard of hearing babies — Hape's Wooden Mini Airplane is durable, child-safe, and would make a great AH ling toy.

OO — The Rings (collected from home)

Colorful interlocking teething rings in yellow, red, wooden, black-white striped, and mint green for practicing the "oo" Ling sound for hard of hearing babies — Rings Collected from Toys at Home

Why we love it: This was a fun treasure hunt around the home to find the best combination of rings from toys and teethers we already had.

The interlocking rings allow us to change the arrangement, or add a new ring, keeping it interesting.

Our wooden ring is from AlexaOrganics.

If you're starting from scratch, any set of plastic linking rings works—these are a popular option.

Itzy Ritzy linking ring set in multiple pastel colors including pink, peach, yellow, sage, blue, and cream for practicing "oo" Ling sound for hard of hearing babies — The Itzy Ritzy linking ring set would make a great OO ling toy.

EE — The Monkey (Infantino, de-rattled)

Infantino colorful soft monkey rattle with orange head, green ears, and yellow body, used for practicing "ee" Ling sound for hard of hearing babies — Monkey Rattle by Infantino

Why we love it: We had this adorable monkey on hand from a 3-piece rattle set. The monkey is so bright, cute, and fits in your hand.

The monkey originally had a circular teething ring attached under his chin, which we snipped off only because it looked too similar to the OOO rings.

We preferred the Ling toys to not rattle, so I got my sewing supplies out, removed the rattle through the seam behind his head, and sewed him back up. Voila!

Our Infantino Monkey appears to be discontinued, but this 5" tall, palm-sized monkey plushie from Aurora would make a great EE ling toy!

Aurora brown and cream plush monkey toy for practicing the "ee" Ling sound in speech therapy for hard of hearing babies — The palm-sized Aurora Boomer Monkey would make a great EE ling toy.

SH — The Baby Doll (Nanchen Organic)

Nanchen organic baby doll in pink outfit with cap for practicing the "sh" Ling sound in speech therapy for hard of hearing babies — Organic Baby Doll by Nanchen

Why we love it: This doll is the perfect petite size, and made with the softest natural materials. The terrycloth is lovely, and the top knot and cute face add interest. It doesn’t make its own sound or light up, and Nanchen offers various color options.

I wanted to buy this doll since before our baby was born, and the Ling toy set provided the perfect excuse! We got our Nanchen doll from Bella Luna Toys.

Update: The doll we used appears to be out of stock as of this writing, but we found a great alternative: Maileg's Small Plush Sleeping Bunny would make a great SH ling toy. Also available from Bella Luna Toys.

Maileg small plush sleeping bunny in cream with chiffon flower collar for practicing the "sh" Ling sound in speech therapy for hard of hearing babies — Small Plush Sleeping Bunny by Maileg

MM — The Pretzel (Fisher-Price Teether)

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Fisher-Price pretzel teether toy in tan with white speckles for practicing the "mm" Ling sound in speech therapy for hard of hearing babies — Pretzel Teether by fisher-price

Why we love it: The pretzel's bumps and twists add interest, and it’s the perfect size. We use the crinkly wrapper separately, so it doesn’t make any sound on its own or light up.

We’re from New York City, and love big soft pretzels. It’s fun when our baby can see us saying “mmm” for the real-life version of her MMM toy.

Our fisher-price pretzel appears to be discontinued, but we found a great substitute: this pretzel silicone baby teether by mushie is made of 100% food grade silicone, and would make a lovely MM ling toy.

Mushie silicone pretzel teether toy in beige with textured surface for practicing the "mm" Ling sound in speech therapy for hard of hearing babies — The Pretzel Silicone Baby Teether Toy by mushie would make a great MM ling toy.

SS — The Snake (handmade)

Handmade felt toy snake with ribbon tail for practicing the "ss" Ling sound in speech therapy for hard of hearing babies — Homemade Snake

Why we love it: We searched far and wide for a suitable snake toy, and came up short!

This was a fun project for me, and adds a special story to the Ling toy set.

If you're looking for a SS ling toy, how about this adorable Harry Potter Slytherin Green 6" SnakePlush from Kids Preferred?

Kids Preferred Harry Potter Slytherin green snake plush toy for practicing the "ss" Ling sound in speech therapy for hard of hearing babies — The Kids Preferred Harry Potter Slytherin Green 6" SnakePlush would make a great SS ling toy.

The Bag

Colorful fabric drawstring bag for storing and organizing Ling toys used in speech therapy for hard of hearing babies — Bag We Had at Home, Now Used to Hold Our Ling Toys

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$0 - we had it at home

Why we love it: We had this drawstring bag on hand, from a beautiful gift our baby received. We love the pretty colors and cheerful rainbow design, and that it’s washable.

It’s perfect for accessing the toys quickly or tossing into the stroller to bring to the park, and looks cute in our home.

Looking for a ling toy bag? Check out our article on ling toy bags for some inspiration.

Build Your Own or Start Here

One of the things we love about Ling toys is that there's no single right answer. Our set includes a wooden airplane, a DIY snake, a de-rattled monkey, and a baby doll—it reflects what we could find, what we already had, and what made our daughter smile. Your set will probably look completely different, and that's the point.

If you're just starting out, we have a few more resources that might help: our 7 Guidelines for Choosing Ling Toys covers how we thought about the selection process, and the Ling Toys section has individual guides for every sound if you're looking for more options.