Students are motivated by a desire to earn more starbucks and gain a higher ranking. Some of the games may be frustrating for students who struggle with spelling, who aren't accomplished touch typists, or who have visual disturbances that interfere with their ability to track moving objects. These students could be penalized for weaknesses in these areas, even though they may have successfully read and comprehended the story. As with most multimedia-rich educational software, Reading Galaxy's animations, dialog, and other sounds can be distracting. However, there are options at login to disable music and other sounds.
Players can also speed through the repetitious parts of the animations by clicking the mouse.
Students who choose to listen as the computer reads will find the computer voices are expressive and easy to understand. However, the screen will highlight an entire sentence as a voice reads. Since these sentences can take up five or six lines on the screen, some students may have trouble following along with such large chunks of text. He has difficulty with reading comprehension, which affects his ability to progress in other subjects at school. After working with the software for over two years, Corey and his mother say Reading Galaxy has been useful in giving him extra practice in reading and helping him recall what he has read.