DrDad's Full Review: The Learning Company Arthur's Reading Race Full Ve...
Aurthur's Reading Race falls into the category of children's educational software. I first introduced Aurthur's Reading Race to my oldest daughter when she was four years old. She's five now and still requests to "Play the Aurthur computer game" at least once a month, and sometimes several times a week. Given that Aurthur's Reading race offers varying difficulty levels, I suspect she will continue to play this game for at least a year or two more.
Aurthur's Reading Race is based on a 12-page (actually, a 12-screen) story about D.W. convincing Aurthur that she can read. Arthur promises to buy D.W. an ice cream cone if she can read ten words around town. They travel to different locations (a park, the zoo, etc.) where D.W. demonstrates her reading skills to Arthur. The story ends at the Ice Cream Parlor where......well, I don't want to spoil it for you.
Arthur's Reading Race - Games/Activities
Arthur's Reading Race has six games/activities to choose from on the opening screen. I will discuss the three structured components first (Read to Me, I Spy, and the Race Game), and then discuss the unstructured components (Let me Play, Pick a Page, and Let me Write).
Read To Me
Once initiated, the Read to Me section requires no interaction from the user. The user simply listens and watches as some parts of the story are read and other parts are acted out through animation of the characters on screen. The words of the story are highlighted in yellow when spoken. The highlighting of the words as they are spoken might reinforce word recognition, but unfortunately the user's attention is drawn to the animated characters and not the text.
In addition to animating the story, each page will show two to three additional animations before moving on to the next page. The whole story takes approximately 15 minutes to view, uninterrupted. To stop the story, one must click on the page number or hit Ctrl-Q on the keyboard. The story and animations are entertaining enough to hold a child's attention the first time it is viewed. However, onced viewed a couple of times, the Read to Me component of the software will be used rarely (at least that is the way it is with my children).
I-Spy
In the I-Spy game, the user chooses one of three pages from the story and chooses one of three difficulty levels. A flashcard shows a written word while D.W. says "I spy something. Can you guess what I spy?". The user has to click the object on the page that matches the written word. The three difficulty levels differ on a number of factors, including required reading level.
Easy Level: To finish the easy level, the user must successfully find three words. Initially, the flashcard just shows the word but the user can click on the card to have the word read aloud. A non-reader can therefore play this level.
Medium Level: To finish the medium level, the user must successfully find four words. At this level, the flashcard shows the word and a clue is spoken (if the word is "taxi" the clue might be "I spy something yellow"). Some reading ability (or really good guessing) is required.
Hard Level: To finish the hard level, the user must successfully find five words. At this level, the flashcard shows the word, but the user must click the flashcard to obtain a clue. Some reading ability is required.
After a game, the words successfully found are reinforced by D.W. saying the word aloud as the word is shown on the screen. Playing the game itself can reinforce reading if the user will attempt to read the words instead of relying on the clues given.
Race Game
The Race Game is a board game like Candyland. Instead of rolling dice to move characters down the path, the user must match a written word with a picture, and will then move as many spaces as there are letters in the word. The user can play against the computer or another user. This game also has three levels and in two-player mode, each user can select a different level.
Easy Level: In this level, the card shows the word and the user has to click on the matching picture. The user can click on the card to have the word read aloud. No reading ability is required.
Medium Level: In this level, the card shows a picture and the user has to click on the correct word. Clicking on the picture will cause the object to be named, but the user must have some reading ability in order to correctly choose the word.
Hard Level: In this level, the card shows the written word and the user must select the matching picture. The word will not be read aloud, but suggestions are made, such as "Can you sound it out?" and "What's the first sound?".
Whether playing against another user or the computer, the Race Game can be completed in about 15 to 20 minutes, depending upon the reading skill of the user and whether or not the appropriate level was chosen. When a correct choice is made, the word is spelled out and the character moves forward one space for each letter. Thus, this game is likely to reinforce spelling and word recognition.
Let Me Write
The Let Me Write feature of Arthur's Reading Race is an unstructured sentence-creation game. The user selects one of three pages from the story, and at the top of the page is a sentence (for example, "Arthur reads to D.W."). The user can then click-and-drag objects onto the sentence to change the subject or object. There is also a tab the user can click to get a new verb and a button to click to have the sentence read aloud. Each page contains about 40 objects that can serve as parts of the sentence, and about 15 verbs. Given that the user can create sentences such as "Arthur cooked D.W." and "The squirrel broke noisy", I am not sure how much educational value this feature has.
Let Me Play and Pick a Page
These two features do the same thing, which is to let the user play with the "click-for-action" objects on each page. The Let Me Play feature reads the story through, but instead of moving the user on to the next page automatically, the user is allowed to click on objects for as long as desired and the user initiates turning a page. The Pick a Page feature shows all 12 pages on one screen and the user can select the page in which they wish to play.
These two features have no structured educational nor reading component to them. Each page has numerous "click-for-action" objects and the animations of these objects are well done. Each animation is somewhat silly and lasts for several seconds. This is the funnest part of the whole software package, but unfortunately it has no educational value.
Arthur's Reading Race - Navigation
A critical aspect of all children's software is how easy is it for a child to navigate the software. Arthur's Reading Race does a great job of guiding the user by having D.W. give verbal instructions on what to do next and what each button does. Most of the buttons are very large. However, sometimes the I-Spy and Let Me Play features require clicking on very small objects (Arthur's glasses for example). Overall, the majority of the software's features do not require fine mouse control skills. With a small amount of practice, a five year old should be able to navigate the software without assistance.
Arthur's Reading Race - Educational Value
At best, Arthur's Reading Race can claim to build and reinforce a limited number of vocabulary words and perhaps increase spelling ability. As with all children's software, the educational benefit will be greater if an adult guides the child in how to play each game and where to focus attention. I am pleased that Arthur's Reading Race offers three different levels of difficulty and that the lowest level doesn't require any reading ability. My concern is that by the time my children have the skills necessary to move to the medium or difficult levels, they will have tired of the software. I would recommend that this software is best suited for a child who is already reading and spelling single words, but who has not advanced to reading complete sentences yet.
Arthur's Reading Race - System requirements
Arthur's Reading Race runs from the CD and requires a 486/66 MHz or faster processor, 8 MB of RAM, a CD-ROM drive, and Windows 95 or higher. I have used the Arthur's Reading Race on Windows 95, 98, and Windows Me systems without any trouble. The software will automatically adjust your screen settings to 640 X 480, but will then reset them at the conclusion of the game.
Final Recommendation
Arthur's Reading Race is fun, easy to use software that has some possible educational benefit. If you can find it for $10 or less and have children who are just learning to read, I would recommend you give it a try. It is entertaining enough to have "repeat play" value, and your children just might pick up an extra vocabulary word or two while playing.
I hope this review of Arthur's Reading Race has helped you with your decision.
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