Product review: Superhero Lotto

Available from Amazon
Ages: 0 to 10

Reviewed by Rebecca who is mum to Ariel-Amber (4) who has a varying level of deafness and wears a hearing aid.

Rebecca and Ariel-Amber

"Superhero Lotto is a matching and memory game by Orchard Toys for up to four players and children aged 3–7. I was excited to try this with my daughter Ariel-Amber, who is deaf, as we’re huge fans of Orchard already and it features a deaf, signing superhero.

The game gives each player a board with a superhero on; each one has their own superpower. The deaf superhero is illustrated wearing a cochlear implant, which delighted Ariel, and the superhero’s special skill is signing. Ariel’s brother thought this was really cool as he often signs to his little sister and it was wonderful to see signing being portrayed as a strength and something rather great!

The aim of the game is to find the matching pictures that correspond to your own board so you have to stay alert so you don’t forget where they are. If this is too simple, you can turn the board over for a slightly more challenging matching game.

Superhero Lotto is a really pleasant activity that’s easy to follow and keeps children focused for a good 15 minutes. My only bugbear is that I would have liked more characters so more than four people can play along. Perhaps there could also be a female deaf superhero?

I would recommend this game to any deaf children or hearing siblings to show them that deafness most definitely has its own superpowers! It would be a good game for schools to have when a deaf child joins, as the more children who see differences in their superheroes, the better."