Matching & Sorting
Learning to match identical and non-identical items is often one of the first skills taught to children with autism who are participating in an early intervention program along with language goals.
While many young autistic children may struggle to communicate, they often have strong visual skills; focusing on establishing matching and sorting skills can help build their confidence in a task they are already familiar with. Additionally, these types of routine-based activities provide a clear objective and predictable routine.
These early visual skills serve as a foundation for future cognitive, social and academic skills, including:
Cognition: understanding similarities and differences
Language development: recognizing same/different
Pre-Math Skills: sorting, classifying, recognizing quantities and categorization
Visual discrimination skills: discriminate between items based on their attributes
Memory and concentration
Social Skills: can be a great way to introduce turn taking activities
Emotional development: build their confidence in learning through an activity they are good at; this close ended task can also provide a sense of accomplishment when its complete
Matching
Matching items that are the same or similar helps children understand similarities and differences between objects or concepts. It can help develop their ability to recognize patterns, shapes and relationships which serve as a foundation for problem solving and critical thinking skills.
Sorting by Colour
Sorting by colour provides a tangible and concrete way to categorize items. This hands-on approach can help in understanding abstract concepts by giving them something visual and tactile to work with. Once this skill is established sorting can be used to teach other language goals such as sorting items into categories or by their function.
Both matching and sorting can be a great way to use a child’s strength and preferences to build their ability to focus on a task. These types of activities can also be a great option for introducing turn taking games with your child.
Things to keep in mind:
Create predictable routine within the activity; wait until your child is consistently following the routine to make any changes
Incorporate your child’s specific interests
Model language while you are playing with your child (e.g. look, blue!)
Some of our favourite matching & sorting toys:
This classic game can be adapted in so many ways to suit your child! Start with only a few cards and gradually increase the number of cards you play with or start with the cards facing up and take turns finding matches! The options are truly endless!
We love this activity because it can grow with your child! You can start by simply organizing the muffins by colour and build up taking turns in this simple matching game
Another Elemenoe favourite as many of our learners like letters! This activity combines something they already like with their new skills - sorting items by colour! There are also many great language opportunities modelling the names of the items hidden inside the acorns!
