DS Games for Pre-readers?

ProfJonathan writes "My daughter just got a DS from the grandparents for her 6th birthday. She's only beginning to read, but wants a bunch of games of her own rather than just playing her older brothers' games. She got Nintendogs with the DS, so that's taken care of, but other relatives are asking what she might want. Can anyone recommend some good DS games that don't require reading skill, that might be age-appropriate and interesting for a 1st grade girl?" Wouldn't it be creepy if the kid had a really good brain age?

Colors!

[tepples]

Get the R4 adapter [r4ds.com] and a microSD card [google.com], and put Colors! [collectingsmiles.com] on it. Look what others have made [brombra.net].

Re:Some Ideas

[xtracto]

I would also recommend Animal Crossing. Now this involves reading, but that's not bad. It's really going to encourage and motivate her so that she can play.

I agree completely with that!

If the girl is 6 years old then I guess she should be learning to read by now don't you think so?? In any case, I completely recommend to use the games to encourage them to learn to read. I am really glad my first language is not English because when I was a kid (around the the Atari/NES times) playing RPGs like Final Fantasy , Dragon Warrior and Ultima made me want to learn English (even having a dictionary at my side when I played). There was also another game which name I do not remember, it was a Tiny Toons (or Looney Toons) game in which you had to create a "film" and it even had the text clouds with some dialogues.

I have always thought games are the *best* way to teach kids (it is the natural way of learning, not only for humans but for every species!) from learning to talk to learning AI algorithms (programming intelligent software mini robots that fight against each other )

Re:Ummmm

[nido]

I'm 26 and never really learned to read myself [slashdot.org].

Kids learn to read anywhere between the ages of 2 and 9. My mother taught herself to read when she was 5 years old - her parents had decided that a caretaker was cheaper than kindergarten, and mom was extremely bored. Motivation is what counts, mostly. By trying to force all kids to read at age 5, the system hurts children who won't want to learn to read until later.

I do okay with non-fiction, but my "imagination" functionality is totally disabled. Almost got it figured out...

Read the comment & follow-ups linked above for more on how I figured out that I can't really read.

Re:She's only beginning to read at age 6?!

[Eli Gottlieb]

Don't worry about the girl -- some people just let their children wait until school to learn to read. I learned to read in first grade at age 5, but today I'm minimizing... let's see... ah: "The Design and Implementation of Typed Scheme" to post on Slashdot.

monkey island

[diskis]

Give her games with real text. Those old Monkey Island games taught me English. Was quite fun the next year when we started learning English in school. When most pupils could say "This is a book", I used words as "rubberchicken with a pulley in the middle". You could actually install ScummVM and run Monkey Island on the DS :)

Killing two birds with one stone

[readandburn]

I'm sure many of you are familiar with this site [videogamecritic.net], but the VGC just reviewed a couple of DS games for young kids. Reviews are also tagged with icons to determine if a game is suitable for young ones.

Also, in light of the recent controversy at Gamespot, this is a good site for truly independent reviews (although it can take a while for new games to show up). You can see what one game publisher did after he gave a bad review [videogamecritic.net].

Re:She's only beginning to read at age 6?!

[Original Replica]

These days reading isn't the only way to learn. The use and manipulation of different GUIs might as important 20 years from now as reading text. That said, early childhood education is very important, while the brain is growing and forming it's most basic pathways it's an educational advantage if "how to learn" is being hardwired in. The difference is most noticeable in children where given little interaction at as babies/infants. They (statistically)never are able to absorb new concepts or information as quickly.

Re:Why would you want games that don't have readin

[Neko-kun]

Can't forget dysentery...

It was a while before it occurred to me to look it up but once I did, I wound up reading up on the history of the Oregon Trail and really made me appreciate dying of natural causes :3

And speaking of ancient games, as a kid, before we were allowed to start playing Oregon Trail we had to prove we understood the concepts of operating a computer with a mouse. Crap everyone knows by now :P But I would really like to get a copy of that one. All I remember was the computers it ran on were PowerPC's running one of the color versions of the Apple OS.

Slashdot Culture

[toiletsalmon]

I find it strangely interesting (and entertaining) that the sex-starved, pale, anti-social geeks that supposedly frequent this place have so many strong opinions about how someone else should raise their child. The mind boggles...

Re:buy her a book

[jezor]

Yes, we did (and do) read to her throughout, and yes, she does have some reading challenges for which she's getting help, although she's extremely bright and social. My oldest son taught himself to read before he was 2, but then again, he was hyperlexic and on the autistic spectrum. Our middle son started to read in first grade, and in fact was encouraged by Pokemon on his Gameboy to work on that.

Now about those games....? {ProfJonathan}

Colors!

[tepples]

Good luck drawing with the touch screen on a DS.

I tried. I came up with this [brombra.net] and this [brombra.net]; others came up with these [brombra.net].

Re:Age 6?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hm.

I read for pleasure. When I was a kid, though, my father would try to force me to. At times he'd even hit me if I didn't read. I have to agree with the grandparent here that this is not the way to go. For years I thought of reading as something bad. In school, I was always the kid who didn't do the reading, and it led me to have horrible grades. The fact that I suggest a causal link between these two facts isn't just some "liberal whining" (as you might put it based on your post); these things have real implications in psychology. There's a reason why if you beat someone they will have an aversion towards something.

Ironically, it wasn't until I got away from school that I really started to like reading. I don't think that this was because my father insistent upon it. These are actually my least fond memories from childhood. It was more intellectual curiosity that got me reading.

If your child has intellectual curiosity, eventually, they will want to read. For people with a thirst for information, there is only so much they can get without reading. Yes, you are right to say that life has many necessary things that are a chore. Life isn't easy. Work is necessary. These are life lessons that people eventually learn. That doesn't mean it has to be tied in with learning to read. We are after all talking about children 6 and under here. At this age, a child needs nourishment. With your sort of attitude, it sounds almost as if you'd rather physically beat them into shape so they learn about suffering and pain. (I've known people that do think this way. When they talk about raising children, they usually sound like you.)

The fact that you would turn this into something political (mention of "liberals", etc.) puts me off even further, frankly.