McNeill Designs' You've Been Sentenced! Word Game Wins 19th Award; Play on Words Honors Game With 2012 PAL Award

WILMINGTON, DE, March 15, 2012 (Press-News.org) McNeill Designs for Brighter Minds' You've been Sentenced! word game recently received a 2012 PAL Award for language advancement from Play on Words. This is the 19th national honor for the game in the toy and game world, as well as in the education sector.

Established by respected speech and language expert Sherry Artemenko, the PAL Award recognizes exceptional toys, books and games like the You've been Sentenced! word game that, through their design, content, quality, and character, promote play that advances language. PAL winners in the hands of kids spark fun and creative play with lots of talk!

Products are chosen on the basis of Play on Words' experts' practical child development experience, and are complemented by thoughtful reviews, showing parents how to best use each toy, game or book to build language.

For more than 35 years, Play on Words founder Sherry Artemenko has worked with children to improve their speech and language, serving as a speech language pathologist in both the public and private school systems and private practice. Sherry started Play on Words to advise parents, companies and authors on the attributes of the best toys, games and media to build language.

"As speech therapists, we spend a lot of time helping kids put together a good sentence and eventually a story. "You've Been Sentenced!" can help such language learning and provide a lot of fun in the process," says Artemenko. "Racing against a timer and your fellow players, one must construct a meaningful sentence from a random set of words. So many skills are tapped it is hard to list them - grammar, parts of speech, meaning, word order etc."

Artemenko continues, "An incredible language learning game, "You've Been Sentenced!" calls on players to know their parts of speech, draft a theme, and use correct grammar. Players act as members of the jury, deciding the fate of proposed sentences adding a social language component to this game also... Get sentenced at home or the classroom!"

In addition to the PAL Award, the You've been Sentenced! word game has been honored with the following industry prestigious awards:

• Parent Tested Parent Approved Award
• George Lucas Educational Foundation's Edutopia magazine, Hot Media for Educators
• MENSA Society's Parenting for High Potential magazine, Resource Roundup Pick
• Scholastic Instructor Magazine Teachers Pick Best of 2009
• Parent's Choice Award
• Creative Child Magazine, Seal of Excellence
• Dr. Toy Best Products
• Oppenheim Toy Portfolio, Gold Seal Award
• Parent's Choice Award

For more information about McNeill Designs, its products, and people, or to request a media sample, please contact Susan McNeill at 302-478-2757 or visit www (dot) McNeillDesigns (dot) com.

Founded in 2004, McNeill Designs for Brighter Minds is a 40+ person creative team which produces games and toys of all kinds. The company's recent releases include award-winning games You've been Sentenced!, Twisted Fish, and more. McNeill Designs products are available nationwide through Barnes and Noble, Toys R Us, Kohl's, and 1,000+ independent retailers. McNeill Designs products are also distributed internationally in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada.

For a comprehensive store locator, please visit http://www.McNeillBrighterMinds.com/stores.asp For more information about McNeill Designs, its products, and people, or media sample requests please contact Susan McNeill at 302-478-2757or visit McNeillDesigns.com.