The Great Action Adventure teaches verbs and related nouns to children within the autism spectrum .  It includes live-action video clips of children acting out the verbs.  Children can play the action videos by themselves and learn the associated nouns or signs.  Older children who already know common nouns and verbs, can use a more advanced setting to learn appropriate verb tenses.  If your computer has a touch screen, children too young to use a mouse can touch a verb on the screen and watch it come to life.

There are three main areas to this program:  Play, Teach Me, and Settings. Play demonstrates verbs, Teach Me quizzes children on the verbs, and Settings allows adults to customize the program for the child.  The Play area provides live-action video clips of the verbs.  The Teach Me area of the program provides six kinds of lessons to build comprehension:  receptive verbs, receptive nouns, verb sight words, noun sight words, verb tenses, and sign language.  The Settings area enables you to choose which words are taught, how they are presented, and how the child is reinforced and prompted. 

Play Area

The main menu of Play area displays the verbs alphabetically. You child can scroll through 140 different videos of verbs (over 70 unique verbs). 

Navigating is easy - children click on the the arrows at the bottom of the screen or an alphabet bar at the top of the screen to view the verbs.  When a child clicks on a verb in the play area, a video of the verb will play, and the student can see related nouns or sign language. 

In the example below, the child clicked on the verb "Cut" and a video showing cutting is played.  You can also choose other verb tenses, such as "going to cut", "cutting" and "cut".

Teach Me

There are six different types of lessons available in the Teach Me area:  Receptive Verbs, Receptive Nouns, Verb Sight Words, Noun Sight Words, Verb Tenses, and Sign Language. For each of these lessons you can specify which words the child needs to work on, whether an item is already mastered, and how the child is prompted, corrected and rewarded. The child’s progress is tracked and new words are introduced when the student is ready.

Receptive Verbs 

In the receptive verbs lesson, the child is given a spoken command such as "find stand", "touch stand", or "where is stand?" At first, there will only be one picture to choose from, so the child should be able to answer correctly. After several successes, the number of choices will increase to two. If the child begins to have difficulty, the program will prompt the correct answer or reduce the number of choices. 

The number of pictures on the screen for the child to choose from will increase up to a number you specify in the Settings Area of the program (for example a maximum of four pictures could be displayed).  In the Settings area of the program, you also can select what command is given, how the child is prompted, how quickly pictures are increased and which verbs are taught, and the order in which they are taught. 

Receptive Nouns 

The receptive nouns lesson is set up like the receptive verbs. The nouns taught are  related to verbs. For example, nouns are provided that relate  to foods that you eat or things that you blow.  

As with receptive verbs, you can select the items that you would like to teach and the order in which they are taught.  

Verb Sight Words

In the verb sight words lesson, the child drags the written word to the corresponding picture. As with the other lessons, initially there is only one choice on the screen. Choices increase as the child is successful.

Noun Sight Words

The child drags the written word on top of the correct picture.  As with the other lessons, initially there is only one choice on the screen. Choices increase as the student is successful.  

Verb Tenses

The verb tenses teach present, past and future tenses. First a video will play either partially, half way through, or all of the way. The computer will then ask, "What is he doing?", "What is he going to do?", or "What did he do?" The child must complete the sentence by dragging the correct word to the blank spot. As with all other lessons, you can select how often students are prompted and rewarded, and how quickly new verbs are introduced.

Sign Language

The sign language lesson plays a video of a noun or verb sign. The child must then click on the corresponding picture. As with all other lessons, you can select which signs are taught, and how quickly they are introduced.

Settings

The Settings menu, shown below, allows you to customize the program for your child. From the Play or Teach Me areas of the program, children can choose to play or do a lesson. Children cannot exit their area without knowing a secret key combination.  

You can control how many verbs are in the play area, and whether or not the alphabet bar, related nouns and sign language buttons appear.  You may also change the color scheme of the screens.

You can select which words are taught in the Teach Me area, and the order in which they are taught.

You can select what command is given, how the child is prompted, how quickly pictures are increased, how many pictures are displayed for the child to choose from, and which words are taught. 

You may also choose how the child is reinforced and how often. Kids will love the animated reinforcements and sound effects. Of course, if these reinforcements are too distracting, you can always select the picture or audio rewards instead. Prompts fade in or out depending upon the student’s success rate. This helps to build your child’s confidence and reduce frustration.