Language Game (easy)

MITA’s Language Game trains a child’s multiple cue responding and mental integration skills through a verbal approach. The Language Game offers a more conventional approach to facilitating language acquisition, starting with simple vocabulary-building exercises and progressing towards exercises aimed at higher forms of language, such as noun-adjective combinations, prepositions, and syntax.

Levels 1-42

These levels introduce a child to the ten main nouns that are used throughout the rest of the Language Game, laying the foundation for all subsequent learning. We have chosen ten simple nouns commonly found in a child’s daily environment: Dog, Cup, Ball, Car, Book, Table, Chair, Couch, Slide and Bed.

We have deliberately limited the exercises to only these ten nouns since the game’s aim is NOT to expand a child’s one-word vocabulary, but rather to teach a child to integrate previously-learned words in novel ways.

In these initial levels, a child is asked to find a particular noun and place it on the hand.

“Find the dog” with no distractors (Level 1)

“Find the dog” with one distractor (Level 2)

“Find the dog” with two distractors (Level 3)

Tip: If your child is already familiar with these ten nouns, proceed to Level 41, in which all 10 nouns will be quickly reviewed before moving on to the adjective-noun integration levels.

Levels 43-64: OBJECT-SIZE Integration

In these levels, a child adds the words “small” and “large” to their working vocabulary, and then learns to integrate these two adjectives with all ten previously-learned nouns.

“Find the large dog” with one distractor (Level 44)

“Find the large dog” with two distractors (Level 45)

Tip: If your child is already familiar with the two size modifiers as well as all ten nouns, proceed to level 63, in which all object-size combinations will be reviewed quickly before moving on to the multiple-cue responding tasks.

Level 64: Multiple Cue Responding – Object & Size

Once children have learned to integrate size with all ten nouns, they face their first multiple cue responding task in which they must attend to BOTH the adjective and the noun in order to find the correct object. For example, when directed to “find the large dog” in the puzzle below, a child must attend to BOTH the size (large) and the object (dog). Attending only to the word “dog” may result in a wrong answer since there are two dogs to choose from. Similarly, attending only to the word “large” may also result in a wrong answer since there are two large objects to choose from.

“Find the large dog” with two distractors that match the target in either size or object (Level 64)

Levels 65-83: OBJECT-COLOR Integration

In these levels, the game incorporates the words “red,” “blue,” “green,” and “orange” into the working vocabulary, and then integrates these four colors with all ten previously-learned nouns.

“Find the red ball” with one distractor (Level 66)

“Find the red ball” with two distractors (Level 67)

Tip: If your child is already familiar with the four colors as well as all ten nouns, proceed to levels 79-82, in which all object-color combinations are reviewed before moving on to the multiple-cue responding task.

Level 83: Multiple Cue Responding – Object & Color

Once children have learned to integrate color with all the nouns, they face their second multiple cue responding task in which they must again attend to BOTH the adjective and the noun in order to find the correct object. For example, when directed to “find the blue car” in the puzzle below, a child must attend to BOTH the color (blue) and the object (car) since there are two blue objects as well as two cars to choose from.

“Find the blue car” with two distractors that match the target in either color or object (Level 83)

Levels 84-102: OBJECT-NUMBER Integration

In these levels, the game incorporates the numbers “two” and “three” into the working vocabulary, and then integrates these two numbers with all ten previously-learned nouns.

“Find two balls” with two distractors (Level 86)

Tip: If your child is already familiar with the numbers as well as all ten nouns, proceed to level 99, in which all object-number combinations will be reviewed before moving on to the multiple-cue responding task.

Level 102: Multiple Cue Responding – Object & Number

Once children have learned to integrate number with all ten nouns, they face their third multiple cue responding task. When asked to “find three cars” in the puzzle below, a child must attend to BOTH the number (three) and the objects (cars). Attending to only one of the two descriptors is insufficient: noticing the word “three” might lead a child to incorrectly pick the three chairs, while noticing only the word “cars” might lead to the incorrect choice of two cars.

“Find three cars” with two distractors that match the target in either number or object (Level 102)

Levels 103-116: SIZE-COLOR Integration

Once a child has learned to integrate a single adjective with an object, it is time to start combining multiple adjective descriptors with a single noun. Our first multi-adjective tasks combine size (small or large) and color (red, blue, green or orange) with all ten nouns.

Some of the higher levels in this sequence require multi-cue responding: a child has to notice BOTH size and color in order to find the correct answer.

Multiple Cue Responding task: “Find the small, orange couch” with one other small object and one other orange object as distractors (Level 112)

Levels 117-128: NUMBER-COLOR Integration

The next group of multi-adjective tasks combines color (red, blue, green or orange) and number (two or three). Some of the higher levels in this sequence again require multi-cue responding; a child has to notice BOTH color and number (as well as the correct object) in order to find the answer.

Multiple Cue Responding task – “Find the small, green ball” with two other small objects, two other green objects, and two other balls as distractors

Levels 129-138: NUMBER-SIZE Integration

Similarly, our final group of multi-adjective tasks combines size (small or large) and number (two or three). Some of the higher levels in this sequence once again require multi-cue responding; a child has to notice BOTH size and number.

Levels 139-157: NUMBER-SIZE- COLOR Integration

Finally, in the highest levels of MITA’s language game, all three previously-learned descriptor categories are combined with all ten foundational nouns. For example, a child has to notice number, size and color when asked to “find the three, small, green slides.” In the most difficult levels of this sequence, the distractors require a child to attend to all three descriptors in order to find the correct answer.

Multiple Cue Responding task – “Find the three, small green slides” where each of the distractors is similar to the target in two (of three) categories (Level 156)

The final levels of the game introduce the spatial prepositions “on,” “under,” “in front of,” and “behind.” A child may hear a request to “put the ball under the bed” and have to attend to the correct nouns, prepositions, as well as the syntax in order to place the objects into the correct configuration. Finally, the game culminates with the most difficult levels, which incorporate adjectives into the scene with commands such as “put the small ball in front of the red couch.”