Coreen Dennis, a Jamaican teacher, has taken bingo to a new level, using it not just as a game, but as a way to teach children to read. She may not be the first to use a word bingo game, but she’s taken it even further, investing almost $100,000 in producing her game for other educators and parents. The game comes with 50 bingo cards, allowing up to 50 players at a time, and currently comes in two versions; ‘My Body’ and ‘My Family.’

Like other bingo games, the cards have squares to fill in depending on what is called, but unlike other bingo games, there are no numbers, only words. One caller pulls a word tile out of a bag, reads it, and then all the other players check whether they have that word on their card, covering it if they do. The first child to cover the whole card is the winner. Parents, though, claim that all the children are winners. Parents who were interviewed about the game said that it motivates their children to get to school and learn. In addition, the game teaches children to read quickly and to associate written cues with sounds.

Dennis, who developed the game while practice teaching, says that the game increases children's vocabulary and helps them learn to associate words with concepts. She says that many parents believe that their children can read after completing kindergarten, but the children really recite the words from picture-books, using the pictures as cues. With her game, she says, children need to learn to associate the letters with the words, which makes it easier for them to learn to read sentences as a whole. So far, the games are only available in Jamaica, but Dennis is already developing two new titles; ‘My School' and 'Who Am I'. Hopefully, the success in Jamaica will help the game get to the United States soon.