Language Therapy for Children 9.5.3

Mental Imagery Therapy for Autism (MITA) is a language therapy application that stands out for its strong foundation in clinical data. In a three-year clinical trial involving 6,454 children with autism, the trial participants who received MITA training showed an average improvement in their language scores that was 2.2 times greater than similar children who did not use MITA. Importantly, this difference was statistically significant (p<0.0001). The study has been published by the journal Healthcare.

The MITA application offers unlimited language and cognitive exercises that have been designed to be effective for up to 10 years. It is used by a significant number of children, with over 1,000,000 children with language delay benefiting from it. Recognizing its quality, MITA has been named the Best Autism App on Healthline's list.

Another key strength of MITA is its accessibility. It is available in multiple languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, German, French, Italian, Arabic, Farsi, Korean, and Chinese.

MITA provides a unique early-intervention approach for children with language delay and autism. The application focuses on training mental integration and language skills starting from basic vocabulary and gradually progressing to more complex forms of language, such as adjectives, verbs, pronouns, and syntax.

The educational activities offered by MITA are based on evidence-based techniques such as visual-visual and auditory-visual conditional discrimination from Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), following directions with increasing complexity from language therapy techniques, and Pivotal Response Treatment which aims to develop responses to multiple cues.

Each activity in MITA is adaptive and dynamically adjusts to provide appropriate exercises at the exact level of difficulty suitable for each child at any given time. Some of the activities covered include identifying colors, patterns, and sizes, integrating objects into a unified picture, understanding spatial prepositions, learning passive verb tense, grasping subjects and objects, practicing reading and writing, developing numeracy skills and arithmetic abilities, enhancing logic and reasoning skills, expanding mental perspective taking, engaging in mental mathematics, and enjoying playtime rewards to foster engagement and fun.

MITA is a comprehensive program that not only develops a child's imagination but also focuses on improving language functions. The visual exercises systematically nurture the child's ability to notice multiple features of an object. The program starts with simple exercises that train the child to attend to one feature at a time, such as size or color. As the child progresses, they will tackle more challenging puzzles that require attending to multiple features simultaneously, such as color, size, and shape. The verbal exercises follow a conventional approach to language acquisition by starting with basic vocabulary and advancing to higher forms of language such as adjectives, prepositions, and syntax.

Designed for early childhood and intended for long-term, daily use, MITA offers an engaging and adaptive learning experience that caters to the individual abilities of each child. It is a valuable supplement to conventional speech therapy for children with language delay, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), pervasive developmental disorder (PDD), intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), Down syndrome, and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

MITA is the result of collaboration between Dr. A. Vyshedskiy, a neuroscientist from Boston University; R. Dunn, a Harvard-educated early-child-development specialist; MIT-educated J. Elgart; along with a team of award-winning artists and developers working alongside experienced therapists.

For more information about MITA's impressive impact and research articles, refer to the provided links: MITA in the news and MITA research articles.