The present invention is directed to a skill-building game, more particularly, to a game that develops the user's visual perceptual skills.
Visual perceptual skills may need to be developed by children or others for reading, writing and other important activities. However, many worksheets and other activities for developing visual perceptual skills fail to attract and maintain the interest of the users long enough to develop visual endurance and sufficiently increase visual perceptual skills. In addition, many worksheets and other activities fail to develop a sufficient variety of visual perceptual skills.
In one embodiment the present invention provides an interesting and challenging system in which a user develops his or her visual perceptual skills in a game-style activity that is challenging and interesting, and encourages sustained visual attention with self-checking of answers. The present invention may develop the seven visual perceptual skills identified in the widely used and norm-based assessment of the Test of Visual Perceptual Skills 3 (TVPS 3).
The system or game 10 of the present invention may utilize or include a plurality of cards, such as, for example, index-card sized cards (i.e., 3″×5″, 4″×6″, etc.), each of which may have a surface area of less than about 30 square inches for ease of handling and playing. The cards can be made from any of a wide variety of materials, such as paper, cardboard, coated or laminated paper, plastic, etc.
As shown in
Each play card 16, 18, 20 includes an upper portion 22 and a lower portion 24, each portion 22, 24 including its own separate and discrete indicia. Moreover, the upper 22 and lower 24 portions may be differently colored. For example, in one embodiment, each upper portion 22 has a background color of yellow, and each lower portion 24 has a background color of white. However, the upper 22 and lower 24 portions may be of the same color, or may be differentiated by any of a wide variety of other means, such as, patterns, shading, texture, etc.
As shown in
Each answer card 18 has an answer portion or indicia 30 on a portion thereof. In the illustrated embodiment, for example, the answer indicia 30 is located on the upper portion 22 of the card 18. Each answer card 18 also includes a picture, illustration or other representation of a train car, or other middle indicia 28, on the other portion thereof (the lower portion 24 in the illustrated embodiment). Each answer card 18 may lack any challenge portion or indicia 26 thereon. Conversely, each challenge card 16 may lack any answer portion or indicia 30 thereon.
Each full play card 20 includes answer indicia 30 on one portion and challenge indicia 26 on the other portion. In the illustrated embodiment, the answer indicia 30 is on the upper portion 22 of each card 20, and the challenge indicia 26 is on the lower portion 24 of each card 20. Each full play card 20 lacks any of the middle (i.e., “train car”) indicia 28.
Each challenge portion 26 and answer portion 30 has indicia 32 about its outer three edges configured to match up with indicia 32 of the corresponding answer/challenge portion (on another card). In the illustrated embodiment, the matching/reinforcing/self-check indicia 32 takes the form of various differently-spaced and arranged color tabs 34. For example, in the challenge card 16 of
In order to play a game with the cards/system 10, in one embodiment, all the cards are arranged on a playing surface, face up (it should be understood that the cards shown in
Next, a user reviews the challenge portion 26 of the challenge card 16, and searches through the remaining cards to find a card having an answer portion 30 that corresponds to the challenge portion 26 of the challenge card 16. Once that card (a full play card 20, in the illustrated embodiment) is identified, it is selected and placed adjacent to the challenge card 16, as shown in
In this manner, the matching indicia 32 on the cards 16, 20 provides reinforcement that the user has selected the proper card and found the correct answer to the visual perceptual challenge 26. Of course, it should be understood that any of a wide variety of matching indicia 32 beyond that shown herein may be utilized to provide a self-check feature. For example, the matching indicia 32 may rely only upon spacing of tabs, instead of colors; or use strictly colors, or use differently sized tab or shapes, or geometric shapes (i.e., triangles, squares, circles, etc.), use incomplete, matching, or mirror image shapes, letters, numbers or figures; use varying textures, or combinations of these features.
Once the full play card 20 of
The card placed in
Because each challenge portion 26 includes the matching indicia 32 along three outer edges thereof, corresponding cards can be placed in any of a variety of configurations adjacent to each other and still be checked for accuracy using the matching indicia 32. For example,
The game/exercise of the present invention can be modified and take any of a variety of forms that differ from the play described above. For example, the game can be played by a single user by himself or herself, or the game can be played by two or more users. For example, in one embodiment, each user takes a turn placing a card at the end of the “chain”. In another embodiment, participants are challenged to be the first one to find the card bearing the appropriate answer portion 30. In yet another alternative, rather than placing the cards face up to begin, the cards are placed face down. In this case, the face-down cards may be arranged in a array of columns and rows. When it is a user's turn, he or she may have the opportunity to turn over one (or more) cards at a time, and then return the cards to their face down position if the appropriate match is not found. This mode of play encourages visual memory skills.
The challenge portion 16 on each card may be of a type to further develop the visual perceptual skills of a user. For example, in the various challenge portions, the user may be challenged to: 1) visualize and identify a completed item or picture from a partially drawn item or picture (which develops visual closure skills); 2) find a hidden item or picture (which develops visual figure ground skills); 3) remember a sequence of pictures in order (which develops sequential memory); 4) match pictures (and thereby distinguish from other pictures that are similar but not exact matches, thereby developing visual discrimination skills); 5) predict what comes next in a sequence; 6) identify the next or missing item in a pattern; 7) identify an item in a series of overlapping lines; 8) visually assemble disassembled shapes into a recognizable form (which develop visual closure); 9) find something unusual or unexpected in a scene; 10) identify shapes (which develops visual form constancy); 11) count a certain number of shapes; 12) identify an item faced a different direction than other pictures within a list of items (which develops visual spatial relationships); 13) identify an outline or shadow for a presented shape or figure; 14) identify an item that is oriented, sized or shaded differently from other items with the shape remaining consistent (which develops visual form constancy); 15) remember a picture from one card to another (which develops visual memory); 16) visually locate a picture hiding within a busy background (which develops visual figure ground), etc.
Each challenge portion 26 may address at least one of the seven visual perceptual skills identified in the widely used and norm-based assessment of the Test of Visual Perceptual Skills 3 (TVPS 3). Accordingly, the skills required in the varying cards address a variety of visual perceptual skills such as visual spatial relationships, visual discrimination, visual memory, visual sequential memory, visual closure, visual memory, visual form constancy and visual figure ground in a fun and challenging manner.
Having described the invention in detail and by reference to the various embodiments, it should be understood that modifications and variations thereof are possible without departing from the scope of the invention.
This application claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) of provisional application Ser. No. 61/094,425 filed on Sep. 5, 2008 which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/US09/55269 | 8/28/2009 | WO | 00 | 2/16/2011 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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61094425 | Sep 2008 | US |