‘Places of the World’ Matching Cards – Learning and Fun!

These Places of the World matching cards are fun for all ages and introduce a different vocabulary from the usual matching games. 

Helen and I have both written about matching cards before because they are listed high among James’ favourite things to do. He has lots of different sets so finding new ones at present-giving time is a challenge. As the people who play with him we also see a lot of these sets so it’s nice for us if we can find something different too! 

Something Different

With my teacher-head on I also try to look for matching cards which will broaden James’ horizons. He is a young man in his mid-twenties so I try to find things with grown-up content. That’s not to say it’s about making him do things that are age-appropriate but about finding something which offers him different imagery, an alternative to the cartoon type cards which he has had for a long time. Whilst we play anything he chooses with him at home, if he was in my class I would be looking to introduce him to new things – after all you don’t know that you like something until you try it. Also things with more grown-up content generally look like they do in the real world – you don’t really see blue pigs or pink elephants such as you might see on matching cards for young children. 

Of course matching cards and puzzles with small numbers of pieces are designed for younger children so the imagery is also designed for them. However, more recently resources have become available on the internet which are designed for adults with dementia. Whilst the images on these are not necessarily suitable for a young man like James and his personal preferences (flower gardens, country houses) we have found a few things which are great for adults of any age. It was during a search of resources for people with dementia that I found these Places of the World matching cards. 

There are 34 sturdy cards each 9cm square, 17 pairs. They show beautiful, clear pictures of famous landmarks from around the world. The places include the Statue of Liberty, Easter Island, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Machu Picchu, Big Ben and the Taj Mahal. They come in a sturdy box with a plastic handle. Unfortunately there isn’t a list of place names included in the box. That would make life easier for a quick start on playing the game.  However, you can download a list and an activity guide from the manufacturers website. Instructions on how to do this are included in the box. 

Ways to Play

The game can be played as a classic game of pelmanism (Lay the cards out face-down. Take turns to turn the cards over. If they make a pair, leave them upturned. If not, turn them over again in the same place. The winner is the person with the most pairs). However, the way we play with James is to lay one of each pair face up on the table then present him with a card from the retained pile to match. 

The downloadable activity guide suggests that the cards can be used as a prompt to form sentences based on the images on the cards. And also that they can be used to form associations and classifications with characteristics that are common to two or more of the images. These activities aren’t at an appropriate level for James but what we do is lots of talking and signing relating to the images. 

James isn’t able to name the places on the cards but he can sign some of the things he sees on them e.g. the boat on the glacier card, the colours on the domes of St. Basil’s Cathedral in Red Square. He recognises Big Ben too, from seeing it on the television. Importantly the cards motivate us and we chat away to James about the places. Some family members have been to some of the places so we talk to him about that and he signs their names and listens as we chat. As we chat we introduce new vocabulary and signs and we talk about a variety of things: sizes, colours, materials, languages, temperatures and so on. As you look at individual cards there are lots of questions that can be asked and that can be answered verbally, by signing or by pointing to the card. See below for some ideas:

Conversation and Communication

Foremost in my mind when I ordered these cards for James was that he was due to be moving into supported living. My hope was that the cards would support his developing relationship with his support staff i.e. they would chat to him while they were playing just as we would. They would be motivated to talk and tell him about their holidays, or where they would like to go, and in that way they would be building their relationship. It’s perhaps not easy to chat to someone unfamiliar who doesn’t chat back, but James is a good listener and the cards are a good talking point. 

James has had the cards for a couple of years now and they have proved popular with him and all of us who play the game with him. The cards are sturdy and are still in very good condition after a good bit of use. 

If you fancy a change from the usual matching cards the Places of the World cards are available online from Amazon or Rompa.