# Sound It First: Learn to Read — Letter Sounds & Phonics

> Letter Sounds & Phonics (iPhone/iPad app by Joshua Salway.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sound-it-first-learn-to-read/id6801398665 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Joshua Salway](https://appshunter.io/developer/1806268418)
- Category: Education, Games, Casual, Family
- Price: Free
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 15.0 · 35 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2026-08-20
- Data updated: 2026-09-02
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/sound-it-first-learn-to-read/id6801398665/reviews.md

## What is Sound It First?

A bare letter appears on screen. Then, slowly, a picture of something that starts with that letter's sound grows in behind it: a becomes an apple, s becomes a snake, t becomes a tree.

Players race to call out the sound and the word. The earlier you call it, the more points you score. So children come to want to read the naked letter, and the picture arrives as the reward rather than the crutch.

SOUND FIRST, NOT LETTER NAMES
What children race to call is the phoneme, "sss", not the letter name, "ess", and the pure sound is what the screen shows. That is the part that actually unlocks reading. The spoken line is a full sentence, "S is for Sun", because synthesised speech cannot voice an isolated sound cleanly.

RACE ON ONE DEVICE
One to five players, each with a coloured buzzer along the edge of the screen. Pass the tablet round the table, or let a grown-up referee.

SPEED IS THE DIFFICULTY DIAL
Start on Slow, fifteen seconds, for an absolute beginner. Work up to Zoom, three seconds, once they are confident. Optional auto speed-up nudges them faster as they get it right.

MORE THAN LETTERS
Blends and digraphs, magic e, word families, sight words, and little books to read together. Plus numbers, counting, adding and times tables, and picture packs for animals, food, clothes, transport, weather and more.

BUILT FOR SMALL CHILDREN
Big targets. No menus to wander into mid-game, exit is press and hold. No ads. No links out. No sign-up, no account, no data collected.

WORKS OFFLINE
Every letter and picture is bundled inside the app, so it plays on a plane, in the car, and anywhere with no signal. No sign-up, no account, and no personal data is collected.

FROM CHALKBEE
Made by the team behind ChalkBee, free printable phonics, reading and maths worksheets for parents and primary teachers at chalkbee.com.


## Version history (last 4 releases)

### 1.0.3 — 2026-08-31

After your third round you may see Apple's standard rating prompt, so you can rate the app if you like. Also fixed a few layout bugs in the game screen on iPhone.

### 1.0.2 — 2026-08-28

Clearer wording about what the app says out loud: the screen shows the pure letter sound, and the spoken line is a full sentence like "S is for Sun".

Plus small fixes under the hood.

### 1.0.1 — 2026-08-24

A big Play button now sits at the bottom of the home screen, so you can start a round in one tap without scrolling past the topic list. It remembers the mode you played last.

Letter sounds are now spoken by the on-device voice, so the app works completely offline with no network requests at all.

Layout fixes on iPhone: the controls, the top player buzzer and the Next button no longer sit under the Dynamic Island or the home indicator, and the exit button can no longer be pushed off the edge of the screen mid-round.

### 1.0 — 2026-08-20

No release notes.

## More apps by Joshua Salway

- [Chess2EZ: AI Chess Coach](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/chess2ez-ai-chess-coach/id6779638910)
- [ToneDeck: Learn Mandarin Tones](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/tonedeck-learn-mandarin-tones/id6781681922)
- [NameTheKid](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/namethekid/id6781684218)
- [Chinwag: Party Games](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/chinwag-party-games/id6797862625)
- [Bluff Club: Imposter Games](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/bluff-club-imposter-games/id6799089197)
- [HiveNote: Beekeeping Hive Log](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/hivenote-beekeeping-hive-log/id6800162998)

All apps by Joshua Salway: https://appshunter.io/developer/1806268418

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*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 2026-09-02.*