"My Word Coach. Love, love, love it! I’m getting smarter every day! The drills are great and I have really retained a lot of the words!"
"An excellent tool for eleven year old son. I bought this game for my eleven year old son. He is bilingual in Spanish and English and I had hoped this would help him to improve English vocabulary and spelling skills. Although it is hard for My Word Coach to compete with his "fun only and non-educational" type DS games, he does actually find it to be be fun and challenging. He likes the fact that he is graded (given a "level") and must compete with himself to raise the level. Now, I just need to work on getting him to play 20 minutes daily! I am looking forward to a future "My German Coach" as he will begin German as his third language in school this fall!"
"Great learning game.... This game is a great learning tool!! While it’s not the first game my nephew will reach for for his Nintendo DS when he is visiting, when I tell him it is time to do something constructive, he will reach for My Word Coach. He thinks it’s fun, and it challenges him. And it makes him curious, because it introduces him to new vocabulary...so it’s a great thing as far as I’m concerned. While it’ll never be the Star Wars game, lol...as long as it’s fun enough to keep him occupied, it’s got my approval!!"
"a fun and educational tool - great for homeschoolers or braniacs. I homeschool my son and he LOVES video games so I am always thrilled to find an educational game for his DS system. Sometimes when I need to go out and run errands he brings his Nintendo DS along and having a game like this can extend his learning time for the day in a fun and creative way. Truthfully, he would still pick up a Mario or Sonic game over this if he had his choice (what kid wouldn’t?) but if I ask him to pick a learning game, he will gladly choose this one. He loves words and has quite an extensive vocabulary already so this game is a natural fit. The easy level was way too easy for him, but the more difficult levels offer some good challenges. He likes the format and the way you can unlock more challenging games. This game would be perfect for anyone looking to build their vocabulary and word skills."
"Good educational game for kids. Although "My Word Coach" is not the kind of game most kids would appreciate receiving as a gift, as educational games go it is a pretty fun one.
Pro:
- Lots of mini-games, which are used for training but are also fun.
- Players are given a choice of four coaches; the "personalities" differ enough that it should be easy for anyone to find a good one.
- Crisp, clean graphical look.
Con:
- The game’s initial player screening is not very precise. I’m a college graduate with a large vocabulary, and I got 100% correct on the minigames the program gave me to determine my starting placement. It still put me at 20%, "primary school graduate." I have to wonder what it would have called me if I hadn’t gotten 100%!
- The handwriting recognition is not perfect; the program has repeatedly confused my "D" for an "M" (and I have very clear handwriting).
As a result of the first "con" above, I find the game too easy. The words it is giving me include things like "juxtapose," "jurisdiction," and "overawe" -- there hasn’t been a single unfamiliar word so far.
I’m sure the game will give me increasingly difficult words, and that if I stuck with it for a few weeks I would start learning new words from it; but I don’t know if I have the patience to keep playing until I get to that point.
Overall, this would be a good game for children, if they would play it. It’s probably too basic to be of much use to adults who already have good vocabularies and are interested in improving them."
"a helpful additive to reading comprehension. I honestly can say that I normally do not allow my children to play on their Nintendo DS’s during the school week but I have made an exception for this.......it helps my sons develop a greater vocabulary so that reading can be done with more ease. The fact that it is in a game format inspires the kids to play on it......whatever helps them in reading and at school is a good thing where I am concerned."
"Finally, a comprehensive language game experience on the DS. While some other "nongames" provide limited access to linguistics-based challenges, this is the first I’ve seen to really capture the joy of engaging with language. I am seriously impressed with this title, and I’ve been recommending it to parents and colleagues alike.
The good stuff:
- All six training games are engaging, and they never get old, since the words are always changing.
- Even the games that focus on spelling are simultaneously engaging you with definitions.
- The training games feel intuitive with the DS stylus, moreso than I imagine the Wii Remote might feel.
- The games are physically fun to play. Move, arrange, rotate, or draw objects. It’s more than just writing.
- The game has intelligently tracked my vocabulary level; I constantly feel challenged, but not overwhelmed.
- The unlocks come frequently, but the pacing is deliberately gradual to retain words in active memory.
- A great experience for 10-30 minutes a day.
What to watch out for:
- As far as I can tell, there is no left-handed support for the one training game where you hold the DS vertically. This is actually a pretty unforgivable oversight. If you are left-handed, you may want to think twice about this purchase.
- Remember that you can turn off the music in the settings screen, and that you will probably want to.
Another review mentioned the lack of pronunciation guide as a problem. I agree that it’s a missed opportunity, but it’s not a dealbreaker. The lack of southpaw support might be, though, if you happen to be left-handed."
"Vocabulary and Spelling -- a great learning tool for kids and adults. My Word Coach DS (we liked the Wii version so much that we also bought the DS game - the DS stylus makes it easier to write, but my son likes the Wii’s fun factor, and the Wii remote seems to keep him more involved in the learning process) - Do you have a kid who hasn’t read enough to build a large vocabulary and strong spelling skills OR a kid who finds words fascinating? This game works for both, and provides lots of word practice with a series of different games - my kid seemed almost surprised at the end of his first series that he had learned so much. There’s lots of reading (definitions, etc.) which I think would make it tricky for kids much younger than ten. The game has progress graphs and high score history for encouragement and provides a word review after play. There are vocabulary games (e.g. Split Decision where you match the word on the screen to its correct definition) and spelling games (what could be more fun than grafitti-style spray painting to fill in the missing letter or correct a wrong letter?), with six training games in all and a couple of ’recreational’ DS games. There are lots of options to keep a player’s interst as the game gets harder - for instance, both definitions may be wrong in Split Decision. My soon-to-be eleven year old plays until the professor tells him to stop for the day (after he’s mastered a profile-determined word list). There’s a slight learning curve, but he figured it out on his own without getting frustrated. He intuitively began picking up on clues such as how to guess a word from the definition. My son says it’s "lots of fun - almost, but not quite, like a regular game." I predict libraries and after-school programs will be holding lots of competitions with this game."
Amazon rating
★ ★ ★ ★ 4 ½ Stars.
YouTube
See more about My Word Coach on YouTube.
Similar Learning Games
Expand your kid’s vocabulary while they have fun? My Word Coach has over 17,000 words and 6 different exercises to build language, improve spelling and word definitions. Great for both kids with limited vocabularies and kids who love words.
There are 6 games to play:
