"It's ok should look more kid friendly" ***
Should have some reward sound when the answer is correct. Otherwise it's ok
By: Momofcurls (US iTunes store, 1 November 2009)
I'm hoping you'll find the release due out in the next week much more to your liking. On your specific point, I'll try to address this more fully in the late November release.
"Name too long" **
The app name on the iPhone is too long, so you can't tell what app it is. You have to remember by the icon only. I hate it when developers do that.
By: SJ5426 (US iTunes store, 1 November 2009)
I'll try to address this in the release I've just stated working on. This should go live towards the end of November. I need to make sure that it doesn't have any unintended consequences.
"abc" *****
My kids love it! Making education fun
By: Pandorafleming (UK iTunes store, 28 October 2009)
"Phonics" *****
Fantastis !!!! And soo cheap !
By: CROLLYBAG (UK iTunes store, 26 October 2009)
"Fantastic" *****
I am a teaching assistant and use the same teaching methods when teaching phonics. I downloaded it to teach my 3 yr old daughter and to aid her for when she starts nursery in January. A very well thought out app.
By: Vicky_bird (UK iTunes store, 24 October 2009)
"Magic" *****
This app is great. My daughter loves it. Shame there is none of the tricky words for them to learn as per the UK sylabus. Maybe they will come in an upgrade.Thank you.
By: jonahtanja (UK iTunes store, 23 October 2009)
I am thinking of making the tricky words available as an add-on for those who want them - probably for 59p. It's quite a lot of work to add them as they work differently from a phonics perspective.
"SLP" *****
Great app. Rapid feedback several options. Yet another app to justify the educational potential for the iTouch!
By: djackson1991 (US iTunes store, 23 October 2009)
"Real phonics and not that ay, be, see rubbish!" ****
It's so good to see a letter app with lower case letters and English phonic sounds! There are so many apps that teach ay, be, see and that's no good.The word game is great and the letter trace feature is very clever.Great app, thank you
By: BananaDonkey (UK iTunes store, 23 October 2009)
"great app for early readers" ****
I love this app. I let my son use it while we are waiting in line somewhere or at the doctor's office (for example). great way to keep up on practicing phonics when we are away from home!
By: jamieb25 (US iTunes store, 22 October 2009)
"A 5 star parent essential" *****
Simply a must have app for all parents of primary aged children. Follows UK national guidelines and grows as your child grows in confidence and ability. Excellent!
By: Spacescopie (US iTunes store, 21 October 2009)
"Educational and Fun is not an easy thing to accomplish" *****
Fun and truly educational are hard to do together, but this app manages to do it well. My 5yr old loves to play the game portion, and trace the letters on the iPhone's screen. My wife is a Kindergarten teacher, so she had particularly high standards, and after much searching through the app store she chose this, and it has been perfect.
By: WShatner (US iTunes store, 21 October 2009)
"Just what the teacher ordered" *****
My son's kindergarden teacher said that my little one needed little more work on his letters and sounding out words. This app is great for that and he loves it. He cries when we have to put it away. I love to see him learning.
By: Karkkey (US iTunes store, 21 October 2009)
"Nice app" ****
Very nice app, useful for kids.Looking for update from programmer.Hope If the programmer can add pic for words, so kids can remmber words qeickly
By: Almotawa (US iTunes store, 20 October 2009)
"Information + Fun = Learning" *****
My five-year old son, who has had difficulty with some letter recognition, loves this game. His reading skills are improving rapidly.
By: Jlowe67 (US iTunes store, 19 October 2009)
"Wonderful" *****
Excellent app! Much better for my son than playing games in the waiting room! Love it.
By: weB3now (US iTunes store, 19 October 2009)
"Sounds" *****
Helped my son learn his sounds so quickly!
By: JustTinaL (US iTunes store, 17 October 2009)
"Fabulous App!" *****
My son loves this app! He is a whiz with electronics and this really keeps his attention, especially when playing a game! For the price you won't be disappointed.
By: MommyOf1XY1XX (US iTunes store, 16 October 2009)
"My happy review" *****
I never take the chance to write a review for anything. Only a few things impress me or cause my admiration, so I am happy to say that this app is well done and very easy for kids to learn. Genious creators and not greedy for I only paid $1...
By: Cesar_Caceres (US iTunes store, 14 October 2009)
"Good ap but why are C and K together?" ****
This ap has both US and UK pronunciations. It also uses two styles of handwriting. I like that you can choose upper or lower case and cursive. I have a first grader and two preschoolers and feel this ap has something for each of them. My only criticism on the phonics is that both C and K are listed in the first group. They make the same sound, so when a child clicks on C when they hear the correct sound for C they are told they are wrong and must then try K and vice versa. Perhaps only allow one in the first group or add an image to assist.
By: Healthy-family.org (US iTunes store, 14 October 2009)
Ironically, just today I'd been thinking about the problem outined in this review and finally decided how I was going to tackle it, so for it to appear as an issue in a review on the same day was kind of odd!
The solution is quite simple, and something I should have thought of before, I'll just make the right choice appear in the word game for that word. I think it's actually good to introduce sounds close together that make the same sound so children realise that the same sound can be made by different letters.
"Best toddler app!!!!" *****
My four year old son love it. He gets really engaged without being bored.
By: maxchantay (US iTunes store, 13 October 2009)
"abc" *****
Fantastic app, both the 2 & 5 yearold love this with excellent results!
By: Drumstick (UK iTunes store, 11 October 2009)
"Far Better Than Most Educational CD's!" *****
My five year old kindergartner loves this app. And I think it's great as well. Simple and to the point. Yet complete enough to provide solid value. Saved the day today as he was getting cranky in the car going to the beach (a 45 minute drive)... "Do you want to play your game on Daddy's iPhone???" Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! All was good... Lower case, Upper case, and Cursive. Simple sounds. Complex sounds. And even a spelling game. I like this to-the-point application far better than the bloated and confusing educational CDs currently available. The UI's on most of these monstrosities are confusing even to adults. I will definitely be checking out more from Apps in My Pocket. Next up, Dolch words or similar....
By: Dolf Zone (US iTunes store, 11 October 2009)
"Boring"**
Nice idea but my son was very bored. There should be some cheering when they get something correct. The sounds should be more interesting. Boring.
By: Mom of two (US iTunes store, 11 October 2009)
Well, this was a surprise. Having not had a bad review for ages, I get two in a short space of time. In a way though, I was quite pleased with this one. I think the concerns raised are not that difficult to do deal with, and my next release will mark my first attempt at improving on them. I also understand that the app needs to become more and more engaging to meet the needs of more children.
One thing I am finding puzzling though is the discordance between the US and UK. In the UK, the current release is rated 5 stars with every rating a 5 star bar one which is a 4 star. In the US, if you measured the average as a modal or median, it would also be 5 stars. However, I also have a number of two and one star ratings that pull the mean average down to a four. Obviously, therefore there are some US clients who like this lady are dis-satisfied. Hopefully, their reason is similar to this lady so by improving in this area, I can better meet their expectations as well.
I do wonder though whether the fact that all children in the UK are taught to read using phonics means that PocketPhonics just gets a more ready acceptance.
"Great learning app" *****
I have a two year old who loves playing with the iPhone and this app is great for play and learning at the same time.
By: James sz (UK iTunes store, 8 October 2009)
"Dad" *****
Has helped my 6 year old increase his vocabulary. Now mine needs help!
By: James sz (Canada iTunes store, 8 October 2009)
"Very Nice" *****
This is a very nice app my child is now learn sounds and to spell and finds this app very fun and useful. Maybe you could ad more words to work on and maybe a button the gives a word the letter starts with example sound of e - elephant. I find kids have a hard time with vowels so a word might help them figure out the different sounds by relating it to a word a - apple e - elephant i - igloo o - oyster and u - umbrella Other than that thos app was worth every penny 5 stars hands down ThanksBlessings
By: www.djfete.ca (Canada iTunes store, 5 October 2009)
Vowels are tricky because they can make different sounds. PocketPhonics at the moment covers just the most frequent letter sounds. "Elephant" is a good example of how vowels can be tricky as most people tend to say "lephant" with a silent "e" at the beginning! I do agree though that it be good to be able to help children learn the letter sounds by listening to words that start with that sound. It's something I'd like to do well though, because often it's done in a contrived way with words that children would never normally use just to have something with that sound at the beginning.
"Not worth it!!!" *
Boring, lack of fun, sounds are distorted. My kids lost interest playing withit in less than minute. iwritewords is a better app and didactic method for kids to learn while having fun..
By: Skander08 (US iTunes store, 6 October 2009)
Obviously, this review was very disappointing. As you can see from the other reviews posted here it is very unusual. I'm also disappointed that Skandoer08 and his kids didn't like PocketPhonics. The handwriting area is something I'm working hard right now to improve, and there's no doubt that this has spurred me on.
I was also very surprised that Skander08 thought the sounds were distorted. They were recorded in professional sound studio by experienced teachers who teach phonics. My only explanation is that perhaps Skandoer08 was expecting to hear the letter names. The app he makes the comparison with does not use letter sounds (phonics). It teaches using letter names, and of course letter names don't actually sound like the sounds letters make in words.
For instance, if you spell out "cat" using letter names, it does not sound like "cat". Whereas if you spell out "cat" using letter sounds, it does. Learning letter sounds means children are able to read words they've never read before. Learnng letter names doesn't help with this at all.
Let me know what you think.
"Superb" *****
Greater starter for early Reading practice. Better than I thought it would be.
By: DabirdmanIsHere (UK iTunes store, 3 October 2009)
"Awesome application!!!" *****
My 3yr old loves it and always wants to play this game!! They just need to slow it down so she can say the words once she spells it.
By: Son Son (US iTunes store, 3 October 2009)
"Brilliant" *****
Son loved it he has special needs and can't use a pencil and hold it so we trace his finger over all letters so this is a dream come true thankyou
By: Wildeearth (Australia iTunes store, 2 October 2009)
"Learning to read" *****
Perfect tool Will fit right along to help reinforce class work, I recommend highly if you are trying to help your child with it's first steps sounding words.complément's nicely jolly phonics teaching materials , in particular for parents that don't Know how to go about sounds as in jolly phonics way.On top since it's on daddy's phone my child takes it as a game!
By: Autoindexit (France iTunes store, 1 October 2009)
"Great App" *****
This is really cool for kids that doesn't want to live the phone away they learn and play at the same time
By: Brendaorea28 (US iTunes store, 1 October 2009)
"Love this app" *****
Great app for beginning students. They really get the feel of the letters and letter sound recognition. The shake erase feature is a hit as well!
By: Teachernyc (US iTunes store, 30 September 2009)
"Great! New feedback" *****
“Great improvements. Very responsive to feedback. Thank you! have seen this app become more kid oriented over the last year. I'm glad that the app designers continue to take suggestions and implement strategies that improve the appearance and overall functionality of the app. As a first grade teacher, my suggestion is to change the fonts of the letters. When I teach lower case t for example I do not curve the bottom to the right, instead I write a straight line from top to bottom. If you can change the fonts of the letters to what primary grades learn it will be a more powerful tool. Also modeling the correct strokes will help kids learn to print correctly. For example, write the line in the lower case i first before the dot. I will change my rating when changes are made..”
By: Calbears (US iTunes store, 30 September 2009)
This is Calbears update to her original review where she asked for the improvement to the fonts, which subsequently happened.
"Ms" *****
By: Louise aileen (UK iTunes Store, 30 September 2009)Utterly brilliant, cannot recommend highly enough. It's really helped my daughter's reading and frankly I have no idea of the phonics sounds so it's a really useful tool for me to help her too! Can we please have more words? A version for more advanced readers? We like it so much we want more!
"Excellent !" *****
By: tony mack (UK iTunes Store, 29 September 2009)Always great to find an app that's fun AND educational for my daughter !Highly recommended !
"Fun & Functional" *****
By: IVRIVD (US iTunes Store, 27 September 2009)Watch your little guy's face light up with excitement as he spells his first words. A great way to keep them entertained while sneaking in a little school work on the side. Get the app. You'll be glad you did.
"Very helpful supplement app" *****
By: RajIsrani (US iTunes Store, 27 September 2009)I am using this for my 4 1/2 year twins as an supplement to the actual phonics program, Hooked On Phonics and have found it very helpful. Definitely recommended.
"ABC Pocket Phonics" *****
By: Jay (Norwich) (UK iTunes Store, 26 September 2009)Fantastic App, easy to use my 4 year old boy loves it and so does his 2 year old sister, I would recommend this app to any parent teaching children to recognize letters and thier sounds, well done.
"Best buy ever fun & education!" *****
By: Catdog blue (UK iTunes Store, 26 September 2009)My son and I really like this app. It helps him with his reading and his spelling. Thank very much
"Brilliant app" *****
Love this app almost as much a our 5 year old. An Australian accent would make this a dream educational tool for our family. Thanks
By: KelvoA90sBoy (Australia iTunes Store, 26 September 2009)
"Great" *****
My 5 year old loves it. I am seeing lots of improvement in her word recognition.
By: Parent (US iTunes Store, 26 September 2009)
"Great Purchase" *****
Excellent app. Engages my 5 year old and really helps him read and write. The developers are constantly updating the app to make it better. Buy it, your preschooler or kindergartener will love it.
By: Dreadlax (US iTunes Store, 26 September 2009)
"Great app" *****
Perfect for pre-k or kinders!
By: TeacherT (US iTunes Store, 26 September 2009)
"Awesome" *****
My 5yr old is in kindergarten,he's a lefty,me and my wife are eighties.it's helping!thanks!”
By: fammo7 (US iTunes Store, 23 September 2009)
"Teacher" *****
“This app is fabulous. I am a Kindergarten teacher and I use this with some of my students who need a little more technological motivation. I highly recommend this app for early reading children.”
By: Acobe (US iTunes Store, 22 September 2009)
"Very popular with my 4 yr old" ****
“My son loves playing with this app and it is definately encouraging him to mark-make. It is regularly updated and the new look is great. For 59p this is an absolute bargain.Update: the update on this is excellent. Really impressed, and my son (now 5 and just starting school) still loves playing with it.”
By: Olly and Ted's mum (UK iTunes Store, 19 September 2009)
"Pretty good" ****
1, seems there's a bug. Once out of game and just going through letters and drawing them and then hitting the right arrow, you'll get thrown back into the game again for no apparent reason. 2, there really should be some sorta rating system on the tracing of letters (like 1-100). This way it stops the children from getting sloppy when using app. The point is to help the children learn how to write these letters, but it really doesn't say if u are doing it right or not. Children need some sorta reward system.
By: Lewinmg (US iTunes Store, 19 September 2009)
[1] Actually, this is intended (assuming I’ve correctly understood what you mean). The ides is that after kids have practised saying and writing a group of sounds, they move into the word game to continue practising this group of sounds. But, this time how they blend together to make words. You can also access the game via the button on the front screen. I will be looking to improve this area over time.
[2] In the next major release of the app, when children trace the letters there will be feedback on how well they’ve done. I think this really is the next big thing to improve.
"Principal review" *****
“As an administrator with two small children I have high standards and this doesn't disappoint! My daughters love it and the four year old is now reading!”
By: Ohio Tarheel (US iTunes Store, 16 September 2009)
"My toddler loves this app" *****
“My kid is starting to learn his sounds. His school teaches cursive first. I have had a hard time locating an electronic cursive phonics app.”
By: Dmonica (US iTunes Store, 15 September 2009)
"Educational" ****
“Great for a child and inexpensive too. My daughter loves this app.”
By: Donyuworry (US iTunes Store, 14 September 2009)
"Good app for 3-5 year olds" ****
“I've tried a few of the toddler and pre-K apps and the all tend to have the effect of me wanted to throw my iPod against the wall after hearing "old mcdonald" too often. This is a more quiet and refined app for phonetics and early stage reading and writing. The menus could be a little more kid friendly but it does a great job for the price.”
By: J Nunley (US iTunes Store, 14 September 2009)
The next few releases will see further refinements to make PocketPhonics even easier and more fun for young children.
"ABC PocketPhonics" *****
“My little 4 year old Grandchild Lexsey, just loves this app. I got her a IPod Touch 16 GB, back when she was three , I installed all types of fun applications and all types of educational applications, I have to say all these app, has help her become the little smart girl she is today, take it from me they do help a child and learning, If you have Children and would love to see you child get ahead in learning his or her sounds and much more then you will love abc PocketPhonice, my 4 year old granddaughter walk around here all day saying words and telling everyone what that word start with or spelling the whole word out. PocketPhonice has help and they can help your child out as well. I Rate this Application : 10 Stars”
By: KNGREEN1 (US iTunes Store, 6 September 2009)
"Fantastic app" *****
“Brilliant! Have been searching for an app like this. My daughter loves it and so do I!”
By: Phonics mum (New Zealand iTunes Store, 3 September 2009)
"GREAT!" *****
“This was a great application, when I bought the demo I knew this as a great application!”
By: Einstein173 (US iTunes Store, 1 September 2009)
"teacher" *****
“As a special education teacher looking for more tactile and differentiated ways to teach students with disabilities, this fits the goal. Nice work.”
By: banjoshoes (US iTunes Store, 30 August 2009)
"Excellent" *****
“This is really helping my son who is 5 years old and has struggled all through his first year of school with learning difficulties. Thank you, appreciate you making this so good, fun and clear. ”
By: ClaireCabriolet (UK iTunes Store, 30 August 2009)
"Great for learning sounds" *****
“My 2 and my 5 year old keep asking to play this game and since it's hard for the 2 year old to share, I had to install it on my husbands phone too.”
By: Impressed mum (US iTunes Store, 29 August 2009)
"buy now" *****
“Brilliant app my wee boy started school and gets phonics homework I can use this on the go without carrying books plus most books you but are uppercase and you can't beat 59p more enjoyment that you would out a sweet at that price plus it helps the develop further xxxx ”
By: Tinkerbell (UK iTunes Store, 29 August 2009)
"Mom" *****
“Great app! My 6 year old just loves it!”
By: Biodieselmom (US iTunes Store, 29 August 2009)
"Abc pocketphonics" *****
“This app is nice I really like how you learn the sounds and than they put them into a game with the words.”
By: Lolo 88 (US iTunes Store, 29 August 2009)
"ABC Phonics" *****
“Great for teaching letter sounds”
By: Rbrown9262 (US iTunes Store, 27 August 2009)
"Great app!" ***
“Very impressed. I had to sit through it with my son for the first few tries to show him what to do. Needs a automatic prompt for the kids after they finishing tracing the letters to be more kid friendly. Even my second grader enjoyed it as a review.”
By: Bellaydiego (US iTunes Store, 24 August 2009)
"Great" ****
“My 3 year old loves it!”
By: Nizzle1212 (US iTunes Store, 23 August 2009)
"Mom" *****
“My daughter struggles with spelling and sounds. She enjoys this app and really likes that she can listen to the sounds with a UK accent and write in cursive.”
By: LeAnn Carr (US iTunes Store, 21 August 2009)
"Fantastic" *****
“Really helping my 4 year old grasp letters and pronounciations”
By: Gooner uk (UK iTunes Store, 20 August 2009)
"PocketPhoncs" ****
“This App was good before, the update has made it excellent. Thoroughly recommended.”
By: diggerdug (UK iTunes Store, 19 August 2009)
"Improvements have been Excellent!" *****
“Wow! When I first bought this App, I would have given it 1 or 2 stars. It was a bit rusty. But the producers have been *amazingly* responsive to feedback, and it has steadily improved. I can honestly say now, that this is a polished and brilliant game for kids to learn phonics with. It's absolutely wonderful! Easily gets 5 stars now. Thank you producers!”
By: Thing5 (US iTunes Store, 18 August 2009)
"Nearly perfect!!" ****
“Just needs the font to be a San serif and it would be brilliant! The serifs are making the writting more tricky than it needs to be.”
By: Tomkatfish (UK iTunes store, 15 August 2009)
Good news: the release to improve the fonts as you describe will go live soon.
"Awesome go learning to read" *****
“Great app”
By: World harvest (US iTunes store, 15 August 2009)
"PocketPhonics" **
"Need More Feedback" **
"Wonderful learning tool" *****
“My daughter is going into kindergarten and this app has really helped her learn the sounds that go with each letter and how to put sounds together to form a word. It is very convenient to pull this out when she starts getting bored. She enjoys it, too. The updates have really helped the sound quality.It is definitely a good tool for preparing kids for kindergarten. “
By: Student (nursing) (US iTunes store, 11 August 2009)
"Almost perfect" ****
“My 4 yr old loves this app. It's probably the best app I have downloaded and the only one I have ever bought the full version of. One improvement I would like to see is for the app to recognise when an error has been made on the writing sounds part. This is only a small observation though, it's completely fantastic.”
By: Tattoo Gaz (UK iTunes store, 1 August 2009)
Many thanks for your very kind words. The improvement you describe is on the to-do list.
"Fantastic!!" *****
“I've had this application for several months now and have to say that it has improved greatly from when I fist downloaded the pencil & pen people make it fun & the voice sounds are clear this has helped my daughter so much with her spelling & reading”
By: Higgy72 (UK iTunes store, 29 July 2009)
"Thanks" *****
“Amazing app. My son (3) loves it”
By: Sutty22 (UK iTunes store, 29 July 2009)
"Great app" *****
“Amazing app. My 3 year old loves it.”
By: Hfdtyjncxddty (UK iTunes store, 23 July 2009)
"Great little program for preschoolers" ****
“My son loves tracing the letters and repeating the sounds. It's worth spending the small amount to get the full version. Much more comprehensive than the lite version. Great learning tool and good for kids entertainment at doctors waiting rooms etc.”
By: Clikchic (Australia iTunes store, 22 July 2009)
"Excellent" *****
“Educational and fun. My grandson loves it and it's good to see the continual improvements.”
By: Cyn29 (UK iTunes store, 22 July 2009)
"Good stuff!" *****
“Fantastic, my daughter loves "playing" I love the fact she is learning too”
By: spj99a (UK iTunes store, 20 July 2009)
"Good for ESL, too." *****
“I found the app useful for ESL students. I found the game useful to understand the sounds by repitition. I hope the developer create ESL version by addting pronunciation symbols and grouping the sounds accordingly. Furthermore, it would be even more helpful if we can choose and compare the similar and complicated sound to us by listening as many times as we want .”
By: Yuyuyuki (Japan iTunes store, 20 July 2009)
Some interesting ideas here for me to add to the list. Many thanks for this.
"Great idea but...."****
“Some of the letter formation is incorrect and needs to be addressed i.e capital k you must take the pen off and write the ‘kicks’ seperately. Other than this it's great value and a wonderful tool for practising what's learnt in reception and year 1(as long as it is reinforcing the correct formation!) - mother of 3yr & 6yr old and also a primary school teacher.”
By: Bitzee10 (UK iTunes store, 19 July 2009)
Err, yes, you’re right. Sorry about that! I’ll get those fixed for the next release. Unfortunately, I failed to double-check some of the uppercase formations with our own resident primary school teacher!
"Has improved, new suggestion from teacher" ****
"XXX" *****
“Brilliant app. I bought it to teach my daughter since she always has my iphone. Very good value for money X”
By: Babyama (UK iTunes store, 17 July 2009)
"Good" ****
‘Good for my son to learn this. And would you mind make one more Iike "Mandarin" Pin Yin" I mean "b p m f" Is much work for everyone wanner work in China.’
By: Mother vivi (Hong Kong iTunes store, 16 July 2009)
Pin Yin (the use of roman letters to represent mandarin letter sounds) is something I know very little about. It sounds interesting though, but probably something I’d need to find someone to help me with.
"Great update!" ****
“Thanks for the update, looks much better on the eye, and makes it all the more interesting for my kids.I would like to see lots more words added in future updates and maybe a setting to choose how many questions to do. Or atleast how many questions are left would suffice
”
By: Rhartmedia (UK iTunes store, 16 July 2009)
Like the idea of showing how many questions left to do. I’ll add it to the list.
At some point, I’ll make another batch of around 130+ words available. The cost of providing this though means I’ll have to make an additional charge for these extra words for those who want them.
"Worth it" ****
“Very good app my 5 year old daughter loves it.Updates are great and useful.keep up the good work”
By: ak33lsolid (UK iTunes store, 16 July 2009)
"Great App - even better with the upgrade" *****
“My four year old in reception year loves this app. The new interface looks great.”
By: owain73 (UK iTunes store, 16 July 2009)
"Fab app, my daughter loves it!!"
“Fab application just got even better. Now it's all bright, clear and cheerful, as well as being great revision for all of the phonics they do at school!”
By: Musickluvva (UK iTunes store, 16 July 2009)
"Great but could be better" *****
"Great application" ****
“Helped my little daughter who is in first grade excel in sounds. Thanks for improved sound, colour and animation quality, daughter likes it even more. I only recommend more combinations and drills added for tion, sion, ci, more”
By: elzan (Canada iTunes Store, 15 July 2009)
"Fantastic!!" *****
“Fab app my boy can't leave it alone!!”
By: LeonDee!! (UK iTunes Store, 15 July 2009)
"Excellent" *****
“Very useful. Please add more words !”
By: Dot P (US iTunes Store, 15 July 2009)
Additional words are definitely something I’d like to offer. There’s about 170 words in PocketPhonics. It does though cost a lot to add more words. There’s the hire of the recording studio and voices plus a very lengthy editing process to get the individual sound files set-up correctly. And, that’s before any programming costs.
Thus, I think this is something I’ll have to charge extra for.
"Rhino" *****
“Awsome app for the kids. Kids actually learning on a iPhone is just phenomenal”
By: TARA4LIFE (US iTunes Store, 15 July 2009)
"Great app, my 4 year old loves it" ****
“I'd love to see a feature where the word is spoken and then you have to spell rather than the program telling you how to spell it outright. All in all, this app will help any young reader who uses it.”
By: Aseaga (US iTunes Store, 13 July 2009)
Well, I like that idea! It goes further than I’d been planning, but I think it’d work well. I’m afraid though, it will be a little while before I tackle it. I’ve several other burning requests in the pipeline that I’ve made promises on. And, I’m getting ever closer to finishing off my next app.
Hopefully though sometime in the Autumn, there’ll be some striking improvements in this area.
"Well designed, excellent value for money" *****
“Four year old loves using the app”
By: Gillpa (UK iTunes Store, 12 July 2009)
"Improvements have been Excellent!" ****
“Keep up the awesome work producers! When I first bought this App, I would have given it 1 or 2 stars. With the Amazing improvements you all have made, it easily gets 4 stars now. Thank you! One thought for improvement: Although it doesn't bother me at all, because I find cursive useless, the so-called cursive letters are the exact same as the printed letters. Personally, I wouldn't mind doing away with the cursive option and making some of the printed letters clearer. The lower case l, f, and j are a bit unusual, for example.”
By: Thing5 (US iTunes Store, 12 July 2009)
The next big item on the development schedule (once the new design is released) is to replace the font currently used with some new, custom fonts. Hopefully, this will deal with the issue you describe.
"Excellent" *****
“My four year old daughter loves playing it and it's helping her learn”
By: Top Toddy (UK iTunes Store, 2 July 2009)
"Wish list" ****
“I wished the letters were alphabetical so that the kids can know tht they are writing them in order. I like the tracing by computer and then the child traces. Good app”
By: Canuckprincess (Canada iTunes Store, 2 July 2009)
The order of the sounds is based around what’s the best order for learning to read. Thus it’s based around frequency of use and keeping apart sounds that children confuse if they learn them at the same time. For instance, many children confuse “b” and “d”, so these are deliberately kept apart.
UK parents might be interested to know that it’s pretty much the same order as used in the UK’s National Curriculum.
Obviously being able to apply alphabetical order is a useful skill to acquire. It’s one of the things that I hope our next app (Dot-to-dot) will help with.
"FANTASTIC!"
“I Just turned 49 June 22. I was NEVER EVER Tought this in school. Sad isn't it?”
By: USA Made? (US iTunes Store, 25 June 2009)
You are not alone, many of us weren’t taught phonics at school, because at the time it was considered “too boring”. Once though it became clear that reading standards were slipping, phonics started to make a comeback. Of course, it’s only part of the answer, but it is an important part.
The great thing about technology such as the iPhone is that it makes it possible to turn something previously deemed “too boring” into a fun, interactive game for kids.
Many thanks for your kind words.
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"Great for beginner readers" *****
“This app has many many more sounds than the lite version - including the harder ch, sh, ng, igh and more!. My little girl really likes tracing the letters and saying the sounds. She asks to "play" phonics, and enjoys the simple games of listening to the sounds and making words. Good app for kindy kids.”
By: Mum of 5 y.o. (Australian iTunes Store, 24 June 2009)
"Letters and sounds" *****
“Broadly in line with letters and sounds from the primary national strategy (check online) it's so lovely to find an English accent. My kids love it! Good job. Matching sounds and sound pics next pls?”
By: Adenovirus (UK iTunes Store, 21 June 2009)
"Great learning game!"****
‘My 5 year old loves this! She said,"look, I am learning to read!"’
By: MarieGraham (US iTunes Store, 20 June 2009)
"Great app" *****
“Great app. My 5 year old enjoys playing with it.”
By: sashadimma (UK iTunes Store, 20 June 2009)
"GREAT !!!" ****
“Good app, just need more sounds like large and short for the vowels.”
By: Valolun (iTunes US Store, 19 June 2009)
Thanks for your kind words.
Just in case you’ve missed them, we do have the common vowel sounds. If you touch the right arrow to move between the different sets of sounds, you’ll come across the vowel sounds represented by two letters (like “ai”, “ea”, “ee” and so on). These are sometimes referred to as “long vowel sounds”. The short ones are just the single-letter sounds you’d expect to see.
We do miss some of the less common vowel sounds at the moment (for instance, “a” can make five or more different sounds depending on what word it is in). Often, these unusual cases are better taught as part of learning “tricky words” - words that are in common usage, but have unusual spelling. As yet, we’ve not tackled these, but they are on the to-do list.
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"Excellent learning aid for kids" *****
“I am using this app to teach a 3 year old who loves it especially drawing the alphabets. It is simple, easy to use. What more to say about this app that kids are loving and learning from this app.”
By: Go-Gator (UK iTunes store) 19 June 2009
"Very good but" ****
"Needs something more" ***
"No supplement for an interactive human" ****
"Impeccable Updated Version" *****
"Great app but one prob" *****
Macworld app of the day: PocketPhonics
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Tags: User review