Reading Tutorial Headed For Wii, DS Players
By Greg Tarr -- TWICE, 5/28/2009
 Mentor Interactive’s My Virtual Tutor Reading Adventures, including the Animal Smiles section, above, will teach pre-K to second-grade kids to read using the Nintendo Wii and DS game players. |
Boulder, Colo. — Already popular for body and brain exercise programs in addition to playing video games, Nintendo’s Wii video game console and handheld DS player will soon become new platforms for helping young children to strengthen their reading skills.
Children’s interactive “edutainment” software developer Mentor InterActive has partnered with 1st Playable Productions to develop “My Virtual Tutor Reading Adventures,” which is billed as series of educational interactive electronic learning tools adapted for Nintendo devices.
Mentor InterActive said the first products in the My Virtual Tutor line will debut in August under the Reading Adventure title for a suggested retail of $29.99. The series will be comprised of three SKUs created for children in pre-K through second grade.
“Mentor InterActive’s mission is to be the digital solution to learning worldwide,” stated Hank Kaplan, CEO of Mentor InterActive. “My Virtual Tutor delivers the value of affordable individual tutoring sessions, which improve skills through increased engagement. This program fills the demand for state-of-the-art production values combined with Mentor’s proprietary learning technology tools ... are proven to work.”
The company said the software has been tested and proven effective with students who show a significant gain in reading scores vs. students who do not use the software.
“We are excited to collaborate with Mentor InterActive on this project,” said Tobi Saulnier, founder and CEO of 1st Playable Productions, which has expertise in developing software for handheld devices. “We are confident our expertise in handheld software development and commitment to creating quality products for kids will meet the needs of both the audience and the brand.”
Mentor InterActive was founded by members of the Colorado University, Boulder Center for Computational Language and EducAtion Research (CLEAR), which created the proprietary Foundations to Literacy software used in My Virtual Tutor.
