Comparison

Expressive Builder vs Keyword Understanding

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
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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

Keyword Understanding

This app helps users of all ages improve their ability to understand spoken and written directions. It features various activities targeting vocabulary, basic concepts, and sequential instructions, making it beneficial for individuals with listening comprehension or processing difficulties.

Highlights
  • Follow spoken and written directions
  • Improve vocabulary and basic concepts
  • Target auditory attention and working memory
  • Activities for one and two-step directions
  • Temporal and sequential direction practice
  • Comprehension check for vocabulary and concepts
Features
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“This app is great for children with processing difficulties which need to improve their ability to follow directions with a variety of embedded concepts.” ~ Smart Speech Therapy blog “Every child I have used it with has been very engaged by the lovely, brightly-colored pictures, and has quite happily kept on listening and following the instructions.” ~ Speech Blog UK “It can be used for informal assessments, language therapy and home practice. It can also be used to target auditory attention and working memory for cognitive-communication goals.” ~ Speaking of Apps blog Keyword Understanding is a professional speech and language therapy app that targets the ability to understand sentences and follow spoken and written directions of increasing difficulty. Children and adults are asked to follow directions in their everyday lives. In order to follow directions, the child or adult requires a strong knowledge of vocabulary, basic concepts and the ability to process and retain the information they have listened to or read. WHO IS KEYWORD UNDERSTANDING FOR? - Parents - Teachers - Speech language pathologists / Speech and language therapists - Children with reduced attention and listening comprehension or auditory processing difficulties  - Children with receptive language delay, developmental language delay or autism - Adults with mild to moderate aphasia due to stroke or traumatic brain injury - Adults with cognitive-communication difficulties due to stroke or traumatic brain injury  WHAT COMPREHENSION ACTIVITIES ARE INCLUDED IN KEYWORD UNDERSTANDING? Comprehension Check: This activity helps you identify where comprehension breaks down. It checks the understanding of individual vocabulary items, and the basic concepts of size and color. Object, Size & Color: This activity works on the understanding of the basic concepts of size and color as well as the ability to follow one and two-step directions of increasing difficulty. 2 keyword level: Touch the green car 3 keyword level: Touch the big red mug 4 keyword level: Touch the green vase and the yellow cushion 6 keyword level: Touch the small pink gloves and the big blue comb Before & After: This activity works on the ability to understand and follow temporal directions (directions which include the concepts before/after in a variety of positions in the sentence). “Before you touch the t-shirt, touch the phone” “After you touch the lamp, touch the vase”, “Touch the flower before you touch the box”, “Touch the sock after you touch the bucket”. First & Then: This activity works on the ability to understand and follow sequential directions (directions which include the concepts first/then in the sentence). “First touch the ladder, then touch the bike”.  WHAT LANGUAGE & COGNITIVE SKILLS DOES KEYWORD UNDERSTANDING TARGET? - Vocabulary - Listening / Auditory Comprehension - Reading Comprehension - Working Memory - Attention to Detail - Language Processing - Basic Concepts / Adjectives (size, color) - Temporal Directions (Before/After) - Sequential Directions (First… Then)  FEATURES 3 modes: - Listening/ Auditory Only: Match the spoken direction to the picture(s) - Reading Only: Match the written direction to the picture(s) - Listening and Reading: Match the spoken and written directions to the picture(s) Keyword Understanding lets you: - Choose from a variety of vocabulary items in different sizes and five different colors allowing for thousands of following directions tasks - Follow directions of increasing difficulty and length - Add individual user profiles - Automatically track correct and incorrect responses of each user - Email a detailed result summary after a session or at a later date - Receive audio feedback for correct answers only, incorrect answers only or both All Aptus Speech Therapy apps participate in the 50% off Volume Purchase Program.  Visit our website for more details about our other speech and language therapy apps.

Screenshots

Keyword Understanding4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Expressive Builder at 95% against Keyword Understanding's 25%. Expressive Builder also leads on price ($9.99 vs $17.99) and update cadence (every 4 months vs every 10 months). Keyword Understanding's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 2.8) and in-app purchases (none vs 10). 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 Keyword Understanding $17.99 up front. Expressive Builder sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Keyword Understanding asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Keyword Understanding holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 3 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 95% of Expressive Builder's written reviews are positive against 25% of Keyword Understanding'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, Keyword Understanding every 10 months. The most recent releases landed on September 27, 2026 and September 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 2 level
Expressive Builder versus Keyword Understanding: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterExpressive BuilderKeyword Understanding
Price$9.99 — better$17.99
Rating2.8 (4 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews95.4% of reviews — better25.0% of reviews
Number of ratings4 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 4 months — betterEvery 10 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS12.1 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size132 MB64 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMobile Education Store LLCAptus Speech and Language Therapy Limited

Customer experience

Expressive Builder

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

Keyword Understanding

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive25.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative75.0%

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

Keyword Understanding

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

Keyword Understanding

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Expressive Builder free?
Expressive Builder costs $9.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Keyword Understanding free?
Keyword Understanding costs $17.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Expressive Builder or Keyword Understanding?
Keyword Understanding is rated higher. Expressive Builder averages 2.8 out of 5 from 4 ratings, while Keyword Understanding averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do Expressive Builder or Keyword Understanding have ads?
Neither Expressive Builder nor Keyword Understanding shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Expressive Builder or Keyword Understanding?
Expressive Builder ships an update every 4 months, and Keyword Understanding every 10 months. Most recently, Expressive Builder was updated on September 27, 2026 and Keyword Understanding on September 3, 2026.

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