An educational aid for teaching students to recognize symbols such as the alphabet and numbers. The educational aid comprises a surface on which a plurality of gaming groups is disposed. Each gaming group comprises two or more gaming zones. The gaming zones each comprise a colour component and a symbol component. The gaming zones in each gaming group have the same colour component and different symbol components. When used the educational aid uses the contrast between the same colour components and the different symbol components in the gaming zones to draw the attention of the students to the symbol components.