Computer-based sorting-to-matching in identity matching for young children with developmental disabilities.

Seven preschoolers with developmental delays had failed regular identity matching-to-sample. The team tried a new computer task instead.

Kids dragged the sample card under its twin picture on the tablet. They sorted until they matched. No extra prompts were given.

Accuracy jumped fast once the dragging started. All seven children reached mastery in a short time.

Only one child later passed the usual matching-to-sample test. The others kept their new skill only in the sorting game.

Du et al. (2017) and Sun et al. (2024) show the same jump with iPad auditory matching. Together they tell us tablets can unlock hard skills when standard drills fail.

Reed (2012) seems to disagree: delayed matching hurt kids with autism. The key difference is timing. Phil made kids wait with nothing to see. Hirofumi let kids move the card right away, so the delay was filled with action, not blank time.

Arntzen et al. (2018) ran a similar trick with adults: a short pre-training with delayed identity matching tripled later equivalence class success. The idea is older than we thought.

If a child is stuck on identity matching, switch to a drag-and-sort version on a tablet first. Let them slide the sample under its twin. Once they master that, fade back to the standard three-array format. Keep the delay active, not empty, to avoid over-selectivity.