Pattern Matching and Extending for ABA & Speech Therapy

Teaching patterns is an important part of any preschool or ABA program because It sets the ground for a lot of other major skills and competencies.

1. Why learn to match and extend patterns?

The ability to recognize and create patterns helps build a strong foundation for future learning

In math, Pattern practice is an essential precursor for learning numbers and mathematical operations.
Patterns help children think critically and provide a sense of order in their environment.
Learning patterns allows children to make predictions based on their observations.
Finally, working on patterns is a great practice for other concepts such as color, size and shape recognition, naming, and matching.

There are 64 different pattern mats included in this activity to teach your child or student to match and extend Patterns.

Here’s what you’ll need to prepare for this activity:

Here is how you do it:

Start by printing the free pdf file in the download section below in colors.
laminate and cut the task cards and images.
Put the task card with the images that go with it
For the matching pattern task cards, use velcro coins to attach the images to the back of the task card so that it’s ready to use whenever you need it. And use velcro coins on the empty rectangles where the images should go to match the pattern.
For the extending pattern task cards, use velcro to attach the images to the upper rectangle on the task card. Then use other velcro coins on the empty rectangles where the images should go to extend the pattern.

To use this free resource to teach pattern matching to your child

Start with detaching the images from the back of the task card and placing them in front of your child.
Explain to him that ‘this pattern goes Seahorse, Fish, Seahorse, Fish.’
Ask him, ‘what should we put first?’. He should say ‘Seahorse’ and place the image of the Seahorse first to match the pattern.
Repeat the process until your child finishes the task card then all the task cards from the different levels of difficulty.

To use this free resource to teach your child to extend patterns:

Start with placing the task card in front of your child.
Explain to him that ‘this pattern goes apple, bread, apple, bread.’
Ask him, ‘what comes next?’. He should say ‘apple’ and place the image of the apple to extend the pattern.
Repeat the process until your child finishes the task card then all the task cards from the different levels of difficulty

This resource is part of the ABA Essentials ABLLS-R resources. It includes 64 task cards divided into the following categories:

32 task cards for ABLLS-R B13 Matching patterns.
B20 Delayed replication of a pattern sequence (you can use task cards from B13 to work on delayed replication of a pattern).
32 task cards for ABLLS-R B22 Extending a pattern sequence.

Each card has the task code as well as the score in the down and right corner for easy organization.

This activity is suitable for the ABLLS-R assessment.