An apparatus and method for teaching early receptive language, especially to infants, young children, the learning disabled, and hearing impaired, comprises a multi-media medium for displaying a set of visual images and their corresponding audio in the language of choice. The multi-media apparatus includes the requisite controls to stop, play, reverse, forward and pause the images being displayed. The method consists of displaying a series of visual images of an object containing comparable but not identical objects on a screen and providing an accompanying audio to describe the objects. This method of repetition and categorization is reinforced by concluding a set of series with a faster paced flow of some objects in the series. Further reinforcement of the concepts is accomplished by the use of textual material. With this method and apparatus parents and teachers can enhance the receptive language and categorization skills of infants, young children, the learning disabled and hearing impaired.