# SOUND BEGINNINGS — Phonemic Awareness Games > Interactive phonemic awareness games for early reading skill development. (iPhone/iPad app by PRESCHOOL UNIVERSITY.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sound-beginnings/id541898864 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [PRESCHOOL UNIVERSITY](https://appshunter.io/developer/404048727) - Category: Education, Games - Price: Free with in-app purchases - Rating: 4.40/5 from 765 App Store ratings · 11 written reviews indexed - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 10.0 · 226 MB - Languages: American English - Released: 2012-08-04 - Data updated: 2026-08-28 - Monetization: free with in-app purchases - User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sound-beginnings/id541898864/reviews.md ## What is SOUND BEGINNINGS? SOUND BEGINNINGS helps build strong alphabetic principle skills. SOUND BEGINNINGS helps develop foundational reading skills through entertaining, interactive games. * Twelve learning games provide practice in phonics and reading * Identify the beginning, middle, or ending sound of a word * Four Unique Games *Learn the sounds of the letters and how to use them Six learning games offer practice using the sounds, not the letters' names, and lowercase instead of uppercase letters at the beginning, middle, and end of words. Feature Highlights: SOUND BEGINNINGS includes six interactive games, where players match the correct letter/sound to the first, middle, or last sound of the word identifying a pictured object. The first three games, in order of increasing challenge, ask the child to select the correct letter/sound for the beginning, end, and middle of a word. For example, finding the first sound of a word, the following lowercase letters appear at the top of the screen, which is in landscape orientation: r, q, y, s, and j. By touching any letter, the user can hear aloud the sound that the letter makes. Beneath the letters is a photo of a rug and an empty box next to it. Touching the picture allows the player to hear the name of the object out loud. Players can touch the picture and each of the letters as many times as they like before dragging a letter down to the empty box. If they have chosen incorrectly, the game lets them try again without any break in the flow of gameplay. This matching Letters to Pictures mode continues through the app's first three games. Using the example above, in the first game, players must select "r" as the beginning sound. In the second game, players would select the "g" as the ending sound. And in the third game, players would choose the "u" as the middle sound. Users, parents, and educators can vary the difficulty of each game by specifying three, four, or five-letter words. Additionally, rounds can be set for 5, 10, 15, 20, or 25 matches each. The last three games are identical to the first; except now, players match Pictures to Letters. For example, four photos are in a row across the top of the screen, including a: kangaroo, fish, ball, and plate. A large, lowercase letter "k" is below with an empty picture box next to it. In this example, players would select the kangaroo as the photo matching the first sound of the word. In the last two games, players must drag photos to match the end sound and the middle sound. Created by a team of educators and experts in early childhood development and education, and tested with preschool children to ensure maximum fun and learning potential, SOUND BEGINNINGS features the outstanding user interface found in all Preschool University apps. The educational games offer entertainment and incentive and employ the most effective teaching methods. ## Key features - Twelve learning games for phonics and reading - Identify beginning, middle, and ending sounds - Match letters to pictures - Match pictures to letters - Adjustable difficulty with word length - Customizable round lengths ## Pricing and in-app purchases Base price: Free. **One-time purchases** | Purchase | Price | Type | | --- | --- | --- | | Sound Beginnings Deluxe | $1.99 | one-time | ## Recent user reviews (10 of 11) All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sound-beginnings/id541898864/reviews.md ### 5/5 — One of the best! *2020-12-26* Sound Beginnings is an outstanding app. PreschoolU is one of the best developers for research-based reading apps. They produce the most accurate and well-designed phonemic awareness and phonics apps available on the market. Because the voices can be adjusted for male, female or child, they are equally suitable for people of all ages. ### 5/5 — Willie *2020-09-15* Granddaughter loves the image ### 5/5 — Help learning beginning letter sounds. *2020-07-16* This is helping our grandson letter sounds and improving his vocabulary. Thank you. ### 5/5 — Great word analysis app *2016-05-18* This app has children discern the sounds at the beginning, middle and end of words. You can match pictures to letters or letters to pictures. It is straightforward and simple in its design and yet this app is still a great educational tool. ### 4/5 — Nice app! *2013-06-19* This is a very simple app, which I like. It has a few bells and whistles to motivate the kids but not too much that it forgets it's an educational game. I like the options you have and the pictures are very cute. Being a reading teacher, there are a few things that I would add or change: 1. In your sequence of levels, I would put ending sounds before middle sounds. Vowel sounds are harder to hear. 2. When you say the word, it would be nice to have the word segmented. Maybe the could be a hint button the kids could push if they couldn't figure it out and then the word wouild be segmented into phonemes. c- a - t At any rate, it's a cute app as is but I would love to see the above suggestions implewmented into the app. Thanks for your hard work! ### 5/5 — Good for vowel sounds *2013-02-13* I needed an app for a student with discrimination problems with short vowels. This is great for beginning readers who need practice with sounds. Is there any chance you can have it track student progress? ### 5/5 — Just what I was looking for ! Perfect ! *2013-01-05* Get this app get it it teaches a lot !!! Perfect for teaching the sounds of letters ! Thank. You so much again !!!! ### 5/5 — perfect app *2012-10-09* This is BY FAR the best app I've seen for teaching my children letter sounds. It's fun. It's clean. It teaches. Best app ever! Thanks! ### 5/5 — Great app *2012-09-01* Wow just an amazing app! Did so much for my little boy! ### 5/5 — Good . Better, Best! *2012-08-28* This is the best app of it's kind on the market---and it's free! If I am not mistaking all or most of the apps by this maker have been free. Generosity? Or, the maker must truly believe in the effectiveness of this app and insure it is in every house and home--er, rather every iPhone and iPad. Personally, as an artist and educator, I love the visuals, the pure colors, and the simplicity and functionality of the apps---very intuitive. I think this app is great for the intended age group, and I think it is great for adults who may be just learning how to read! Many thanks to Preschool university. You're on the right track to fast learning! ## Frequently asked questions about SOUND BEGINNINGS ### What does Sound Beginnings do? Sound Beginnings is an educational app that helps build strong alphabetic principle skills and foundational reading abilities. It uses interactive games to teach children about phonemic awareness, specifically focusing on identifying and using the sounds of letters at the beginning, middle, and end of words. ### What are the key features of Sound Beginnings? The app includes twelve learning games that provide practice in phonics and reading. Key features involve identifying the beginning, middle, or ending sound of a word through matching letters to pictures and pictures to letters. Users can also adjust the difficulty by selecting word lengths and the number of matches per round. ### How much does Sound Beginnings cost? The app is free to download and offers in-app purchases. This model allows users to try out the educational games and then purchase additional content or features as needed. ### What age group is Sound Beginnings for? Sound Beginnings is designed for preschool children and early learners who are developing their foundational reading skills. It has been tested with preschool children to ensure maximum fun and learning potential, making it suitable for early childhood education. ### How does Sound Beginnings teach letter sounds? The app teaches letter sounds through interactive matching games. Players match letter sounds to pictured objects or vice versa, focusing on the initial, medial, and final sounds of words. The games allow users to hear the sounds of letters and the names of objects aloud, reinforcing the learning process. ## Version history (last 5 releases) ### 3.0 — 2021-08-18 Lessons and lesson tracking were added. Two games were replaced for better concept conveyance. More words were added. If you like this app, please leave a review. Reviews REALLY help. Reviews are much APPRECIATED. ### 2.7 — 2020-06-24 Launch screen update. Fixing sidebar issues for greater compatibility with iPhone 10 iPhone 11. If you like this app, please leave a review. Reviews REALLY help. Reviews are much APPRECIATED. ### 2.5 — 2017-05-29 Review API changes ### 2.4 — 2017-05-23 Crash related to sounds fixed Review API addition ### 2.3 — 2017-01-26 Upgraded User Interface with 2 new games.. Greater iOS compatibility. Clearer Concept Implementation If you like SOUND BEGINNINGS, please take the time to give us a nice review: it really helps. Period for free upgrade ended. ## Apps similar to SOUND BEGINNINGS | App | Rating | Price | Category | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [ABC Writing Alphabet Tracing A](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/abc-writing-alphabet-tracing-a/id765342578) | 4.2 (819) | Free | Education | | [Shapes Flashcards & Activities](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/shapes-flashcards-and-activities/id804717144) | 4.2 (88) | Free | Education | | [Reading Train Alphabet Lite](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/reading-train-alphabet-lite/id957316999) | 4.5 (4) | Free | Education | | [HB Phonological Awareness](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hb-phonological-awareness/id667457445) | 3.4 (24) | Free | Education | | [Phonics Flashcards](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/phonics-flashcards/id6448996882) | 3.7 (3) | Free | Education | | [Phonics Island Letter sounds](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/phonics-island-letter-sounds/id554102317) | 4.6 (3,176) | Free | Education | ## More apps by PRESCHOOL UNIVERSITY - [ABC MAGIC PHONICS](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/abc-magic-phonics/id404048724) - [ABC MAGIC PHONICS 2](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/abc-magic-phonics-2/id411576364) - [READING MAGIC-Learning to Read](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/reading-magic-learning-to-read/id416896853) - [ABC MÁGICO Abecedario](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/abc-magico-abecedario/id418049164) - [ABC MÁGICO 2](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/abc-magico-2/id425013436) - [ABC SPELLING MAGIC](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/abc-spelling-magic/id429301553) All apps by PRESCHOOL UNIVERSITY: https://appshunter.io/developer/404048727 ## Related topics [beginning reading](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/beginning-reading) · [phonemic awareness](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/phonemic-awareness) · [dialed sound game](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/dialed-sound-game) --- *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 2026-08-28.*