Language Therapy As A Game

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The goal of these games is to train the child to combine mental objects at will in an infinite number of ways. Unlike learning new words, which can be accomplished at any age, this ability must be acquired during the critical period between the ages of two and five. After that, the lack of voluntary imagination leads to a lifelong inability to understand spatial prepositions or complex language, and to impairment of cognition, intellect, and executive function. Encouragingly, studies show that children who master this ability at an early age achieve significant breakthroughs in all areas of learning.

Learn about the SCIENCE behind our apps[edit]

I recommend you play these games with your child whether or not you use Mental Imagery Therapy for Autism (MITA) or another learning app. If you would like to try MITA, you can download it for free from your app store. On you smartphone or tablet, open the App/Play Store and search for MITA.

If you are interested in learning more about the science behind MITA, please read this peer-reviewed article.

Playing these games will also help you get to know your child. The comment we hear most often from parents who use MITA is that they didn’t realize how smart their kids were. Here’s Rachel:

“This app has done two things for us. First, Tim learns from it, and second, watching him play shows me how much my nonverbal child really understands. It turns out he knows way more than I was giving him credit for.”

Be patient. Voluntary imagination is an internal mental ability, and it does not immediately manifest itself. It may take several years before a nonverbal or minimally verbal child demonstrates his voluntary imagination through language.

How Are We Doing?[edit]

Remember, how you measure your child’s progress is important because it influences therapy. Most widely-used tests skew the results to favor vocabulary learning. They also hide your child’s true progress toward combinatorial language. MITA uses a tool called Mental Synthesis Evaluation Checklist (MSEC) for this purpose, and you can too—by answering these questions every three months and scoring your responses.

To complete the questionnaire, choose one of three answers to each question: “not true,” “somewhat true,” or “very true.” To score your responses, add one point for every “somewhat true,” and two points for every “not true” response. MSEC assigns higher scores to more severe symptoms. As your child improves, his score will go down.

Each group of questions tracks a specific mental activity your child must exercise to master combinatorial language. Questions 1 through 7 test for elements of combinatorial language. Questions 8 through 10 test your child’s ability to follow a story. Questions 11 through 13 offer a glimpse into crucial nonverbal activity that serves as a precursor to combinatorial language. Questions 14 through 20 test for math skills, a fantastic exercise to strengthen every part of the brain involved in voluntary imagination.

Keep a record of individual questions, as well as the total MSEC score. Over time, it will give you precious insights into your child’s inner growth towards combinatorial language.

Praise and Rewards[edit]

Being human comes with an insatiable thirst for praise and reward. Your HR department and your yoga instructor know and use this fact to motivate you. So it’s only fair that your child get his share.

We built lots of praise and some fun coloring time as a reward into MITA. It’s been a big hit with the parents, not to mention the toddlers. Amber’s son was one of the first children to enroll in our study and use MITA to work on his voluntary imagination:

“My son Alexander, who turned 3 in September, was recently diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. He went through all the testing in school with diagnosticians and a therapist, and though I knew he was a very bright boy, his scores were very low. Once I got the diagnosis, I started looking for answers or anything that might help my son. Fortunately, I found the Mental Imagery therapy for Autism (MITA) program.
One of the most challenging problems I encounter when trying treatments for my son is keeping his attention. Most programs he only uses for a moment and then quickly moves on, refusing to try the program again. With MITA, he stays interested for a long time. Most of the time, I’m the one trying to get him to take a break from it! Aside from offering a multitude of changing pictures and puzzles, they quite thoughtfully also change the format of the puzzles; from orientation of the puzzles to the types of puzzles being solved which helps keep it interesting.
Giving the instant praise after solving a puzzle as well as the big ‘Play Time’ reward is a huge help as well. He jumps up out of his chair and is so excited every time he solves a puzzle and makes it very special.”

Alexander is another wonderful success story. Four years later, Amber posted this comment on the MITA website:

“…Alexander is now in 1st grade. He is mostly in a mainstream classroom with very few pull outs and has many friends. He is able to think and solve problems and keeps up with his peers especially in math where he often leads the class…
…He still loves the rewards and praise offered when he succeeds even as he’s gotten older. Other rewards such as coloring pages have been added that he has a lot of fun with.”

Many parents use sweets as a reward. I once watched my good friend Irene give her autistic son Charlie a little piece of chocolate every time he completed an exercise. When asked how she motivates Charlie to do his work, she said: “He knows he has to do it. He can fool other people, but I won’t let him get away with it, and he knows it.” A very true statement, if you know Irene like I do. But even she is not above resorting to bribery here and there.

Speaking of praise, no one deserves more praise for your child’s success than you, the parent. You never cease to amaze me with your ingenuity, kindness, patience, resourcefulness and resolve. You’re the best judge of how to reward and motivate your child. Please keep up the good work. Needless to say, the result is beyond worth it.

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