Comparison

Expressive Builder vs Fun with Verbs & Sentences

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Expressive Builder

This app helps children improve sentence ideation, formation, and language skills through interactive exercises. It utilizes audio clips and voice recording to enhance auditory processing and reinforce language development, making it ideal for special needs children.

Highlights
  • Sentence ideation and formation practice
  • Auditory processing enhancement with audio clips
  • Voice recording and playback
  • Multiple hint levels
  • 250+ images for sentence creation
  • Import custom images
Features
Read full description

Voted 3rd best educational app of 2011 by AppsForHomeschooling.com Voted 9th best education app of 2011 by SmartAppsForKids.com Own as an individual app or as part of our MES Speech Therapy Bundle. Expressive Builder is designed to help children accomplish the following educational goals: 1) Improve sentence ideation ; 2) Improve sentence formation; and 3) Improve receptive and expressive language. Extensive use of audio clips promotes improved auditory processing for special needs children with autism spectrum disorders or sensory processing disorders. Auditory playback of child's voice offers reinforcement for language development. Expressive Builder offers a rich and fun environment for improving the ability to create grammatically correct sentences. FEATURES -Record feature allows students to record sentences in their own voice -3 levels of hints -Simple and intuitive interface to record sentence -Save and email recorded sentences -250 distinct images to create sentences from -Import your own images -Optional hint button LANGUAGES - English REQUIREMENTS - Compatible with iPad - Requires Iphone 5.1 software update ExpressiveBuilder is part of "The Builder Series" of award winning education apps. Mobile Education Store has won over 40 app awards and has been named educational developer of the year in 2011 and 2012. Mobile Education Store is a member of Moms with Apps, a collaborative group of family-friendly developers seeking to promote quality apps for kids and families. Recommended Ages: 3-6, 6-10 Categories: Special Needs

About

Fun with Verbs & Sentences

This app helps children aged 2-6 develop language skills by teaching sentence structure, verb tensing, and action words through interactive activities and animations. It supports speech therapy goals and early literacy concepts with customizable options and progress tracking for up to 75 users.

Highlights
  • Sentence building with visual cues
  • Verb tense practice (past/present)
  • Action word animations
  • Customizable sentence structures
  • User and data tracking
  • Watch & Say activity for assessment
  • Pronoun practice options
Features
Read full description

Created by Patti Hamaguchi, M.A., CCC-SLP, a licensed speech-language pathologist, Fun with Verbs & Sentences is the next step up for children who are learning to speak in sentences, understand past and present verb tensing, and formulate basic sentence structures. It's a great supplement to speech therapy or just a fun way to help children develop language! Now for the iPad, iPhone and Mac screens! This app is developed for language/cognitive ages 2-6 with eye-popping color drawings and 266 delightful animations--a cutting-edge way to show and teach action words! This app is our “full” version. It provides a fun way to visually show left to right sentence building (early literacy concepts) and sequence the parts of a sentence in the right order. This full version allows up to 75 users and groups and data tracking. Want to show animations simply to elicit sentences and verb forms? Just select the "Watch & Say" activity--also a great pre/post assessment tool. Select the verbs from 39 choices or random, and choose the target sentence structures. But this app does more! Play the "Build a Sentence" activity: 1) Choose your subject: There are three character choices in this app: a boy, a girl, and a bear. You can even opt to select "he" and "she" for extra pronoun practice! 2) Then choose your verb: The next step is choosing something for the girl to do. Use the Custom Verb setting or random. (There are always 3 picture choices, such as draw, jump, or eat). Let's choose "draw". 3) Choose your object or prepositional phrase: The last step is choosing something for the child to draw. (Choices for draw include: cat, spider, or cat). 4) The narrator now voices each part of the sentence slowly, as the circles flip around, one at a time, to reveal the associated pictures: “The girl…is drawing…a cat.” Unless de-selected, the narrator will then model the sentence at a quicker speaking pace, “The girl is drawing a cat.” The child is complimented for the sentence and then instructed, “After the video, it will be YOUR turn to say the sentence.” 5) The animation that shows the sentence that was created (i.e., “The girl is drawing a cat”) is now shown, typically with a sound effect. If the verb is present tense, (which is the default) it snaps back and loops continually, without sound. 6) The child is asked, “What is happening? Tell me the whole sentence.” The circles below can be tapped to show the associated pictures or tapped again to hear the associated audio. The child taps “Record” and tries to formulate the target sentence, then touches “Stop”. The child listens to the target phrase by touching a “Check” button that pops up, and compares to his own recording. If used in therapy, the data tracking features on the left can be used. (This can be de-selected within the settings if no desired) *If past tense verb forms have been selected, the animation is shown only once and the narrator asks, “What happened?” If the user would like to target the verb only, this can be selected in the settings, with the question being asked, “What is the girl doing?” (or “What did the girl do?” for past tense) 7) A reward game can be played at desired intervals, the “Pop It!” Game. The child touches bubbles on a screen until a selected “prize” is found. PRIVACY POLICY: We do NOT collect personal data from our users and have no ads. Personal data regarding user performance on the tasks on this app are self-contained and not transmitted in any way, unless the user chooses to email them to someone else. A perfect speech therapy app! Developed by licensed speech-language pathologist Patti Hamaguchi, M.A., CCC-SLP. Patti is an author of books including "Childhood Speech, Language & Listening Problems: What Every Parent Should Know" and co-author/author of multiple standardized tests including the RESCA-E, RESCA-ELD, TAPS4, and ELCI. Visit our website: www.hamaguchiapps.com Questions or need Tech Support? Email us at info@hamaguchiapps.com

Screenshots

Fun with Verbs & Sentences4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Fun with Verbs & Sentences at 3.6 against Expressive Builder's 2.8. Fun with Verbs & Sentences also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 10) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 4 months). Expressive Builder's advantage is review sentiment (95% vs 54%) and price ($9.99 vs $15.99). On ratings volume and ads there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Expressive Builder costs $9.99 and Fun with Verbs & Sentences $15.99 up front. Expressive Builder sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Fun with Verbs & Sentences asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Fun with Verbs & Sentences holds the better App Store score, 3.6 against 2.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 10 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 95% of Expressive Builder's written reviews are positive against 54% of Fun with Verbs & Sentences's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Expressive Builder ships an update every 4 months, Fun with Verbs & Sentences every 2 months. Both last shipped on November 6, 2026.

Scorecard8 real differences · 2 level
Expressive Builder versus Fun with Verbs & Sentences: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterExpressive BuilderFun with Verbs & Sentences
Price$9.99 — better$15.99
Rating2.8 (4 ratings)3.6 (10 ratings) — better
Positive reviews95.4% of reviews — better53.8% of reviews
Number of ratings410 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS12.1 — better14.0
Further details — not scored
Size132 MB923 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMobile Education Store LLCHamaguchi Learning & Development, LLC

Customer experience

Expressive Builder

All ratings4 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral75.0%
Negative25.0%
Written reviews87 reviews
Positive95.4%
Neutral1.1%
Negative3.4%

Fun with Verbs & Sentences

All ratings10 ratings
Positive60.0%
Neutral10.0%
Negative30.0%
Written reviews13 reviews
Positive53.8%
Neutral23.1%
Negative23.1%

Bugs and requests

Expressive Builder

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Cannot choose picture set
  • Skip image button not present after update

Requested features

14 requests
  • Bring back the skip image button
  • Wider variety of ethnicities represented
  • Ability to have words read aloud
  • Ability to have hints read aloud
  • Highlighting word as it is read
Show 9 more
  • Add a 'gaming' picture pack
  • Ability to upload personal photographs
  • More sets without in-app purchases
  • Ability to archive more students
  • Add older children (teens) to original pack
  • Ability to go to next/previous image at any time
  • Text to speech for non-readers
  • Play button on the first page
  • Tap on words to have them read aloud

Fun with Verbs & Sentences

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

10 purchases

Expressive Builder

One-time10
  • School Game Pack$1.99
  • Sports Game Pack$1.99
  • Hobbies Game Pack$1.99
Show 7 more
  • Inside Playtime Game Pack$1.99
  • Medical Game Pack$1.99
  • Pets Game Pack$1.99
  • Places Game Pack$1.99
  • Playground Game Pack$1.99
  • Winter Game Pack$1.99
  • All Game Packs$19.99
None

Fun with Verbs & Sentences

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Expressive Builder free?
Expressive Builder costs $9.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Fun with Verbs & Sentences free?
Fun with Verbs & Sentences costs $15.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Expressive Builder or Fun with Verbs & Sentences?
Fun with Verbs & Sentences is rated higher. Expressive Builder averages 2.8 out of 5 from 4 ratings, while Fun with Verbs & Sentences averages 3.6 from 10 ratings.
Do Expressive Builder or Fun with Verbs & Sentences have ads?
Neither Expressive Builder nor Fun with Verbs & Sentences shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Expressive Builder or Fun with Verbs & Sentences?
Expressive Builder ships an update every 4 months, and Fun with Verbs & Sentences every 2 months. Most recently, Expressive Builder was updated on November 6, 2026 and Fun with Verbs & Sentences on November 6, 2026.

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