Autism Therapy with MITA
• Used by over 25,000 kids with ASD as a supplement to their regular therapy
• Over 15,000 two-and three-year-old kids are progressing through MITA on a daily basis
• Recommended by hundreds of physicians for children with ASD starting from two years of age
Mental Imagery Therapy for Autism (MITA) is a unique, early-intervention application for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The app includes bright, interactive puzzles designed to help children learn how to mentally integrate multiple features of an object, an ability proven to lead to vast improvements in general learning. Success with MITA could overtime result in significant improvements in a child’s overall development, specifically in the realms of language, attention and visual skills.
SCIENCE BEHIND THE PROJECT
MITA is based on Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT), one of the best-supported therapies for children diagnosed with ASD. The puzzles target three of four critical areas of development supported by PRT: response to multiple cues, motivation, and self-management.
A child's ability to notice and to respond to multiple visual cues presented simultaneously is the most critical. This ability is typically impaired in individuals with autism, leading to what is commonly described as “stimulus overselectivity”, or "tunnel vision." Improving the capacity to respond to multiple cues has been shown to reduce stimulus overselectivity, which in turn leads to vast improvements in general learning.
MITA in the news: https://youtu.be/giZymh3rMHcA peer-reviewed article describing MITA: http://goo.gl/lyHw95
MITA GAMES
MITA includes nine adaptive games that develop a child’s mental-integration ability as well as train their language functions. The visual exercises follow a systematic approach for developing a child's ability to notice multiple features of an object. MITA starts with simple exercises that teach a child to attend to only one feature, such as size (screenshot #1) or color (#2). Over time, the exercises get more difficult and require the child to attend to two features simultaneously, such as both color and size (#3). Once a child has practiced attending to two features, the program moves on to puzzles that require attending to three features, such as color, size and shape (#4), and then eventually to puzzles that involve attending to an ever-increasing number of characteristics.
The verbal exercises in MITA also train your child’s mental integration ability. However these puzzles offer a more conventional, verbal approach to facilitating language acquisition, starting with simple vocabulary, and progressing towards higher forms of language (such as adjectives, prepositions, and syntax).
As a child progresses through MITA's systematic exercises, he or she is developing the ability to simultaneously attend to a greater number of features, reducing the propensity towards tunnel vision, and thus developing an essential component of language. The ability to mentally build an image based on a combination of multiple features is absolutely necessary for understanding syntax, spatial prepositions and verb tenses.
MITA is designed for early childhood and intended for long-term, daily use. It is designed to be engaging and educational, as well as adaptive and responsive to the individual abilities of each child.
FEATURES
• Each game is adaptive and delivers exercises that are at the exact level of difficulty appropriate for your child at any given point in time
• Animated characters and Playtime rewards will keep your child engaged while learning and having fun
• Clean and intuitive interface with beautiful graphics that every child will love
• No ads, no in-app-purchases
MITA is developed by Dr. A. Vyshedskiy, a neuroscientist from Boston University; R. Dunn, a Harvard-educated early-child-development specialist; MIT-educated, J. Elgart and a group of award-winning artists and developers working alongside experienced therapists.
Category : Education
Reviews (28)
The skill building aspect of this app is fantastic. My son stays engaged for the entire program I have set up (10 stations). The issue I have is with the ending. He is working hard because he loves the coloring reward at the end. However, as a child on the spectrum, he likes things to be just so. The coloring app is more frustration than fun, as there is no eraser, or even an option to paint in white. Please consider working on this so the end can continue to be a reward.
I have seen some noticeable improvements in my sons receptive language skills after using this app daily for about 1 year. Generalization, however, does seem to be a challenge; he demonstrates an understanding of concepts such as prepositions etc in the app, but is slower to do so in other settings. I'm hoping skill generalization just takes a little bit longer. Also, if you purchase on Google Play, there is no way to transfer to an Apple device afterwards, if you switch your device. You have to purchase again.
Love the app. The app itself is great and my son loves it. We were subscribed on an iPad and now are on Samsung. So two issues - the first being that subscriptions couldn't be moved. The second is that the price through Google is 5 times higher than we were playing and way out of our range for a yearly subscription. So I will let him enjoy the free features for as long as he can.
Frustrating for a toddler. She can't help but touch the screen with the hand holding the phone. Or she accidentally grabs the notification bar. I wish they was a way to lock it into the app so that she wouldn't keep inadvertantly turning it off. We were trying it on a phone but I'm going a tablet with a bully case would make it easier to hold without touching the screen. But I was hoping to try it out a bit before spending so much money on something that might not work for us.
My daughter really likes this program. I hate that it is so expences thought. I have recommend it to everyone that has an autism child that I know. The cost is a big expence. When their is so many other expences associated with autism.
I love the app and we've used it for some time now. However, we had to get a new device for my son and most of the games are now locked. I've tried the restore option multiple times, I've unsubscribed and resubscribed many times and restarted the device and the app and still can't get the games to unlock. I even uninstalled and reinstalled the app. It really shouldn't be this difficult. And now it's unusable.
Very good game! Thus, for language it is important 1. To decrease delays between trials - they wre very long and a child loses attention, while in language teavhing procedure speed is a vital clue. 2. It is important before changing the "level" to verify that a word is really remembered. I have to change a level back manually at each session, because I am sure that my child does not remember a name of an object, but got the program algoryth using visual clues.
Following version update to 9.1 from 8.1, Android version has stopped playing music and there are frequent screen freezes which result in progress loss. I have paid version on Android and free version on iOS (v8.1). Exercises do aid comprehension and I like the variety of games.
I was hoping for a European Portuguese version as described. As a language therapy app, you are probably aware of the importance of listening to good and correct diction and "natural" native words. What you offer ingame is not European Portuguese. There are too voices. The main voice is not European Portuguese. Sadly, it was the only app so far that had advertised "European Portuguese".
My son is one the spectrum for autism but this game HAS BEEN AWESOME. He can work at his own pace, and it progresses as he does. As a parent you can adjust settings so that your child gets the most out of the app as he/she can. I don't usually write too many reviews, but I DEFINITELY recommend this app. I use it now for my 2 year old girl who is developing at a rate typical for her age. She is learning and gaining from MITA as well!!
The app is good but the New price of £57 per year is too much. this was developped by academics to supposedly help autistic children with some developmental skills, in return the developers got acess to masses of user data. The new price is far too high and I will not be renewing my daughters subscription. I Simply cannot afford to pay that much.
Good so far but when my young student got to the level where you give more than one object to the instructor the game repeatedly told him he was wrong, even though he was doing as instructed. The game will not let us proceed. As I have paid for the whole experience I am feeling very ripped off therefore you get a low rating!
I get to the "please give permission to read and write data on the sd card" part of set up and it just freezes. I've uninstalled and reinstalled and same issue. My tablet is a Samsung tab E and is brand new. It's not an issue with my device.
This app is absolutely amazing my boys love the games and I find the assessmentsbto be incredibly helpful. The staff were amazing helping me when I had issues after an update error. This is a form of therapy that will help any child especially those on the spectrum. Thank you for creating such a dynamic resource
problem on reinstall. but got it to reinstall but had to cancel subscription in order to reinstall then lost ALL progess even though used same play store account, device, and email upon set up. starting from fresh hope my 2 year old non verbal spd child still enjoys it. also why does it now ask permission for access to photos and media?
Wonderful Program. My child enjoyed the free version so much his birthday money was used to purchase the Full Version ($15CND) with Subscription. Has his birthday Money all ready for renewal and now it's $77CND! Regretfully that is way out of out of our budget. This one is on me for not reading the fine print about the dramatic price increase after a year. So long and thanks for all fish!
This is an excellent app which my son has enjoyed and advanced in. However, hiking the price from €12.99 to €64.99 in one year is frankly profiteering and completely unjustifiable in my opinion. I would dearly love to have an nearly 5 fold price increase explained to me.
MITA has helped my child to improve his receptive language
I have been using MITA from past 6 months as therapy for my son who has speech delay. The result has been overwhelming, he is getting more vocal now. He loves interactive language games and solves puzzles with minimal guidance. Thanks a ton for developing this amazing app.
Like app and want to subscribe but Google Play is not accepting any of Indian credit or debit cards and declining those payment methods. All these cards(Visa and MasterCard) are tested and tried, 100% operational at other places but not at Mita. I wish GooglePay or any other form of payment is also available. Hope Mita folks read this and provide a way out.
My little one really struggled with this app. I strongly advise, it's not your child's age but their ability and it caused a lot of upset that my little one couldn't do it on the easiest setting.
purchased to use during work with my kiddos for brain breaks during our home ABA sessions and loved it as the kids I've used it with have loved it. Very disappointed to see the yearly cost jump from $12 to $60 without any reasoning. Is new content being added? If not I will be resorting to a free version.
It helps my 6 year old. Great app.. 👍After a few months of use, the challenge is keeping him interested as he now rejects doing this... For variety, can pictures change? Like plants? Thanks..
My son got a new tablet for his birthday, in the new installation didn't carry over his progress and is very limited in its features. Making this subscription based and the REALLY annoying questionnaire, starting with: can your child speak one word? - NO, next question is about simple sentences. 10 minutes of my time, for answering VERY stupid questions, without branching and conditions is just too much.
Terrible app, asks you to for your Email and then only shows you samples of the games. The games are very poor quality and low budget. don't waste your time downloading this app. I feel like it was just a bate app to get peoples emails to sell to other companies.
Love this app. I have seen great improvement with my son and it helps you learn where he's growing and what he needs to work on more. I do. Wish they would change up the games on a more hourly basis instead daily.
Great app! Helps my child learn lots of concepts. I'm also glad that you continue to add new features/games. The recent ones are opposites and vocab builders. I really love this app.
This app has played a vital role in my son speaking again after a decade of being mostly mute. He started on this only a few months ago age 17, it is the first app he has been able to do independently and it seems to have been the catalyst to him starting to do many things independently. Just cannot recommend this enough for all ages.