# First Phrases — user reviews > 65 indexed App Store user reviews of First Phrases by Hamaguchi Learning & Development, LLC, rated 4.20/5 from 13 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/first-phrases/id473894018/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/first-phrases/id473894018.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 8 · 4★ 2 · 3★ 2 · 2★ 0 · 1★ 1 ## What do users think of First Phrases? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 👍 Engaging animations - 👍 Effective for speech therapy - 👍 Customizable settings - 👍 Good for language development - 👍 Interactive learning - 👍 Motivates children - 👍 Simple and easy to use - 👍 Visual and auditory support - 👍 Recording and playback feature - 👍 Great for early learners - 👍 Useful for autistic children - 👍 Expands language skills - 👍 Keeps kids attention - 👍 Well-designed app - 👍 Good for practicing sentences - 👍 Helps with word order - 👍 Encourages repetition **Cons** - 🐛 Buggy after updates - 🐛 Screen share disconnects - 💰 In-app purchases for characters - 💰 Price considered high by some - 🐛 App crashes frequently - 🐛 Settings not saving - 🐛 Words do not flip **Commonly reported bugs** - Screen share disconnects during animations - App crashes frequently - Settings do not save - Words do not flip to show phrases after update - App not working after new iPad purchase (resolved) **Most requested features** - Store recordings for progress tracking - Add more phrases - Allow more student profiles - Save multiple recordings - Repeat targeted phrase with icons on all pages - Data collection feature - Add more verb-noun combinations - Data tracker for student progress ## Newest reviews (12 of 65) ### 5/5 — A great app for beginning language *2012-11-02, version 1.3* A great app for beginning language. Wonderful pictures, animations and audio. I love the record/playback as the students love to hear their own voices! ### 5/5 — Excellent App *2012-11-01, version 1.3* I just love this developer. Fantastic characters and scenerios. Child can record their voice and try again if they don't get it right the first time. Excellent PICS that are easy to understand. Easy 3 word phrases that are commonly used. Great way to get your child to work on phrases instead of just 1 word replies. ### 5/5 — Another great app *2012-11-01, version 1.3* Hamaguchi is known for creating easy to use apps with engaging graphics and clear audio and this app does not disappoint. A very useful tool for those with emerging language skills. ### 5/5 — VERBS! *2012-10-27, version 1.3* This is a wonderful way to introduce verbs to young students! The pictures provide visual supports that will make it possible for the students to not only visualize but also be able to get a concrete understanding of the concept. ### 5/5 — Very good app *2012-10-24, version 1.3* this app is great.very simple to use and its fun, Anouilh variety to not let a child get bored with it. Great for early speakers or delayed speakers. def worth the cost. it's customizable and allows recording, which is a great feature! ### 5/5 — Excellent app *2012-10-21, version 1.3* I really like this app. I like how it can be customized for where the student needs help. I love the animations! I use this app during my therapy sessions. ### 5/5 — Great app *2012-10-18, version 1.3* This full version app gives you so much more than the lite version. Love the graphs and the ability to engage the learner. Having the ability to record is a fun way to keep the learner's attention on task. The learner has to concentrate in order to remember what to say. ### 5/5 — wonderful! *2012-10-17, version 1.3* if i had a little one i would most definately get this and start with it when they are able to work with you. very educational and entertaining at the same time. well worth the download!!!! ### 5/5 — Great! *2012-10-16* I love using this app with children who are working on forming sentences with correct word order. It breaks down simple sentences in a basic way for easy understanding and interaction by actually watching and touching each word. The accompanying video representation of the sentence reiterates the child's phrase as the animation makes the child "believe" he is following the spoken command/sentence. It is a really great concept that works great with many children who are visual and tactile learners. I will get a lot of use out of this app daily! ### 5/5 — Fun app *2012-10-16, version 1.3* This is a really neat app to work on learning phrases and word order. I like the different ways to learn, especially the part where you can drag the words into the correct order. I'm not a fan of the IAP for extra characters, but overall I'm really pleased with this app. ### 5/5 — Awesome *2012-10-15, version 1.3* This is a great app to have when teaching young kids and ESL kids. I especially love the challenge part of the app where the kids get to drag the words into the correct order. My patients love speaking the phrases and watching the animals perform the tasks. Great job overall! ### 5/5 — First Phrases HD *2012-10-15, version 1.3* By: Papadiz A good app for pre schoolers with easy to understand instructions. This could also be used with persons with autism and language skills deficits. Good starting point that is built on by this developer with other apps. Program ran as expected with no glitches. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Problem after yesterday's update *2013-07-18, version 1.4* This app is wonderful and WAS working perfectly until yesterday's update. Now after you press "start" to begin to record the phrase, while at the same time tapping the phrase to read and say it, the words in the boxes now DO NOT FLIP to show the phrase. I even deleted the app and reinstalled it to see if it would correct itself and it did not. I double checked all settings on my end and they are set correctly. This needs corrected as it is a key aspect to this app. ### 1/5 — Not worth it *2012-04-14* With the amount one has to pay , it is definitely not worth it :-( I would have expect more phrases than that !! ### 2/5 — Poor QA makes a poor app *2012-04-12, version 1.2* I purchased this app to help our daughter learn to build sentences when she speaks. Though I like the app for its simplicity, it lacks severely in its stability. The app crashes a lot and the settings don't save. For $10 I expect perfection from an iPad application but what I got is not worth $2, maybe even zero as the crashing will drive you bonkers. I hope the devs fix this app soon as its frustrating. ### 3/5 — One of my favorites BUT needs bug fixes! *2018-03-29* As a speech therapist this is one of my favorite apps and I used it all the time with my face to face clients. I now solely do teletherapy and would love to use this app with so many of my clients. I use Zoom web platform and when I screen share my iPad, it starts out fine and then disconnects my screen share when the animation starts. This is so frustrating because I know I could get so much use out of the app, but with that glitch it makes it u unsable. Please fix so I can love this app again! **Developer response:** Please contact our tech support directly to troubleshoot any glitches with any of our apps. Their contact is info@hamaguchiapps.com. ### 4/5 — Love this *2020-10-24* I bought this app for my granddaughter to help with her speech. She is very young. I wish the recordings could be stored some way, maybe at the end of a session. It would be nice to look back and see her progress, as well as have something sentimental to save. I am sure teachers could use that function as an evaluation tool to share with students and parents. Great app. **Developer response:** Thank you for this very excellent suggestion. When we first made this app, it was not feasible because adding storage for audio recordings would make the memory requirements too large. However, when we reprogram it, we will see if there is a way we can do that, without eating up too much of your device's memory. Thanks for the suggestions! ### 4/5 — Great *2014-05-30* I had problems with the app not working when I bought a new iPad. I'm so happy to have it working again. It's a great app for practicing structured sentences. Thank you. **Developer response:** Dear Hippolulu, It's been awhile since you posted this review but Apple is now allowing developers to respond, so we wanted to thank you very much for taking the time to rate and review it. We hope you are still enjoying the app! ### 4/5 — Great app *2013-01-14, version 1.3* This app is fun and easy to use. I like that as a parent I can easily begin to use this app to help my child. Good for kids with special needs and early learners. ### 4/5 — The options are endless! *2012-10-30, version 1.3* A great app for learning to put words together in phrases. It starts off, for example, "tell the bear what to do" and then you touch the phrase and it says"eat the cookie". Then it shows a small clip of a bear eating a cookie. Next you can record the phrase and then listen to your recording. The options for making easy or difficult are fantastic. ### 4/5 — Great app *2012-10-17, version 1.3* This is a great app. It is simple enough but with so many varieties it doesn't become boring. I love the recording feature for my older son. This will help many children with speech struggles and disabilities. ### 4/5 — Great for SLP *2012-10-14, version 1.3* This is a great app for a therapy setting. I can really see the usefulness of the interactive repetition. Great for increasing vocabulary and length of utterances. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Love the new data collection feature! *2025-02-24* Just started playing this app with my preschool kids since the update and they love the new thumbs up animation when they say it correctly. Data collection and replaying missed questions is also welcome. Thanks for continually improving these treasured classic apps! **Developer response:** Thanks so much for your kind review. We are glad you are enjoying the app! If you ever have any issues with it, please shoot us an email at info@hamaguchiapps.com ### 5/5 — Excellent *2016-05-21* Great range of items, good setting controls , and nice use of video and speech recording. Adult guidance is a must. Kids are very motivated and entertained while learning and practicing. SLP **Developer response:** Dear SPeechLP, While it's been over a year since your review, Apple is now allowing developers to respond to reviews, so we wanted to say "Thank you!" for rating and reviewing it. We hope you are continuing to enjoy the app! ### 5/5 — Love it *2015-10-22* Excellent in the right therapist hands. Keeps kids attention while helping to expand language skills in a functional way. **Developer response:** Dear Sweetpotatowado, While it's been almost 18 months since you posted this, Apple is just now allowing developers to respond to reviews. We wanted to say thank you for taking the time to review our app and we are happy that you like it! Thanks again. Justin @ Hamaguchi Apps ### 5/5 — Using a Lot! *2015-03-14* I was able to use this with a variety of speech and language children right away. It’s simplicity makes it easy to customize for each, to change the way I present it for each child’s unique needs and they are all motivated to imitate. I get a lot of repetition from the students. It is great for them to be able to hear themselves. They do not always like or are confused by hearing there own speech in other circumstances that I have tried, but they seem to respond well to it in this program. Well worth it. **Developer response:** Dear Arch5, While it's been over 2 years since you posted this, we developers now have the ability to respond to reviews. We just wanted to say "thank you!" for taking the time to review our app and for the thoughtful comments. We are so happy to hear that you are finding the app useful for the children on your caseload. ### 5/5 — Best language app I have! *2014-05-02* This app is fantastic. I use it with my 5 year old autistic son and his two year old brother. The boys love the animation and are motivated to repeat the phrases. We bought this app about a month ago and we've seen huge leaps in my 5 year old's expressive language. This app has done more for his language in a month than his special ed preschool has done in a year. I can't recommend it highly enough. ### 5/5 — Great app *2013-10-26, version 1.6* Always love apps from Hamaguchi! This one helps my students learn to focus and expand their language skills. ### 5/5 — Love this app! *2012-11-12, version 1.3* My kids love using this app in the classroom! It's great for working on verbs, fluency recording, etc. Also great is being able to customize the app for each student's individual needs! Thanks for an app that's great to use with all of my students! ### 5/5 — Fun app! *2012-11-11, version 1.3* My son had a great time with this app! He especially loved hearing his own voice when saying the phrase! A great reinforcer! ### 5/5 — Great! *2012-11-05, version 1.3* Great app for students beginning to put phrases together. Drawings are simple yet recognizable. Animation is a plus for student engagement! ### 5/5 — Excellent app for teaching 2-3 word phrases *2012-11-04* This full version app is so versatile for teaching 2 or 3 word phrases. It is customizable for the needs of the user. One can choose different narrators, choose between 2 or 3 word phrases, choose from simple verbs or verbs with prepositions, choose from easy, normal or challenge play, and choose recording modes. One an also choose the number of times the user taps the phrase before the animation acting out the phrase begins. This is a great app!!! --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-27.*