Rainbow Sentences vs First Phrases
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Rainbow Sentences
This app uses color-coded visual cues to help students construct grammatically correct sentences. It breaks down sentence parts like who, what, and where, allowing users to build and record sentences in their own voice. Designed for young learners, it offers interactive lessons and engaging rewards.
- Color-coded sentence parts
- Drag and drop sentence creation
- Audio support for words
- Sentence recording and saving
- 6 levels of sentence complexity
- Pictograph lessons
- Earnable puzzle piece rewards
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Own as an individual app or as part of our MES Speech Therapy Bundle. Winner - 2012 Best Language Development App - Technology in Special Education Finalist - Best Education App of 2012 - Best Apps Ever Rainbow Sentences is designed to help students improve their ability to construct grammatically correct sentences by using color coded visual cues. The who, what, where, and why parts of sentences are color coded to help students recognize and understand how combinations of these parts create basic sentence structure. Students will learn how to recognize the parts of sentences such as nouns, verbs, and prepositions, improve their understanding of how combinations of these parts create basic sentence structure. Students have the opportunity to record their sentences in their own voice to improve their receptive and expressive language skills. Rainbow Sentences offers a unique environment for improving a student's ability to create grammatically correct sentences. FEATURES -168 images to create sentence from -Intuitive drag and drop to create sentences -Words are spoken as they are being dragged for non readers -Words can be color coded for added visual support -Word groups can be selected to simplify sentence construction -6 levels of sentence complexity -Pictograph lessons to help students learn proper sentence construction -Record feature allows students to record sentences in their own voice -Save and email recorded sentences -Students earn puzzle pieces during play to encourage continued play -Puzzles come to life once level is complete LANGUAGES - English REQUIREMENTS - Compatible with iPad - Requires iPad 11 software update 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, Education
First Phrases
This interactive app helps young children learn to combine words into meaningful phrases. It features animated characters performing actions and allows for recording and playback to aid language development. Ideal for speech therapy and early literacy support.
- 72 verb + noun phrase combinations
- Animated characters performing actions
- Record and playback speech
- Group setting for multiple users
- Data collection and reporting
- Visual support for learning
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From SmartAppsforKids.com: "In my opinion, First Phrases is a must-have for parents of children working on increasing expressive vocabulary, as well as the therapists and teachers who support their learning. First Phrases is creative, utilizes the iPad’s features in effective ways, and is engaging for young children. Highly recommended." This interactive, illustrated and animated app is perfect for a toddler, preschooler, or any child who is learning to put two or three word English phrases together. It provides many opportunities to hear (receptive), see, and say/record (expressive--if the child is talking) 72 different verb + noun combinations, such as: eat the carrot, blow the bubble, ride the bike, throw the ball, sleep on the bed, put away the toys, and more. With 6 different characters performing the actions, there are 456 possible animations so your child will never be bored! Each verb form is paired with several associated nouns to make a logical phrase such as "eat the apple" or "eat the banana" or "eat the carrot". It is also a great way to teach the article “the” in a meaningful phrase context. Use with 20 children, making it an excellent choice for professional use by a speech-language pathologist. There is also a group setting that allows several children to be engaged at once yet still have their own personal settings. Replay missed items, email results or print them out on the Session Results page! How to play: Tell the characters what to do! Touch the illustrated parts of the phrases in order one at a time (e.g. “eat... the... carrot”). The child hears the pre-recorded spoken phrase modeled. You can have this repeated once, twice or three times in the settings for maximum auditory input. Children who are not yet talking can skip the recording option and simply tap/see the associated animation on the Easy Level to learn the meanings of the phrases and to build language comprehension. The child then watches the character (bear, mouse, cat, dog, boy or girl) perform the command to help associate the words with their meaning. Now it’s the child’s turn to say it and tell them what to do! Tap the microphone and record, listen again, and watch the character follow the direction. Use the optional visual support to help remember what to say! On the scoring page, an adult can indicate what parts of the verb phrase were produced correctly for data collection if desired, then tap "Done". When all parts of the phrase are correct the character gives a thumbs-up. This format is especially powerful for children with speech delays and autism spectrum disorders who need strong visual support with as little background clutter as possible, and for use in speech therapy sessions. The format also is a terrific way to support early literacy for left to right orientation, reading (with text on feature) and word boundaries. Options include text on/text off, recording feature on/off, girl or boy narration voice models, presentation of the phrase in 3 segments (verb + the + object) or 2 segments (verb + the object). A perfect speech therapy app for children with special needs! 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. This is a one-time download fee. We do not have subscriptions. Developed by noted speech-language pathologist Patti Hamaguchi, M.A., CCC-SLP who is also the author of books such as "Childhood Speech, Language & Listening Problems: What Every Parent Should Know", "A Metacognitive Treatment Approach to Treating Auditory Processing Disorders", several tests (RESCA-E, ELCI, TAPS4) To find out more about this app and our other upcoming projects, go to: www.hamaguchiapps.com Questions or need Tech Support? Email us at info@hamaguchiapps.com
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: First Phrases at 4.2 against Rainbow Sentences's 3.7. First Phrases also leads on device support (3 vs 1). Rainbow Sentences's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and price ($9.99 vs $15.99). On review sentiment, ratings volume, update cadence 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
Rainbow Sentences costs $9.99 and First Phrases $15.99 up front. First Phrases sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Rainbow Sentences asks for nothing beyond the download.
First Phrases holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 3.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 15 and 13 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 94% and 94% positive.
Rainbow Sentences ships an update every 6 months, First Phrases every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on June 9, 2026 and August 27, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Rainbow Sentences | First Phrases |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.99 — better | $15.99 |
| Rating | 3.7 (15 ratings) | 4.2 (13 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 94.4% of reviews — better | 93.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 15 — better | 13 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 4 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 179 MB | 612 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Mobile Education Store LLC | Hamaguchi Learning & Development, LLC |
Customer experience
Rainbow Sentences
First Phrases
Bugs and requests
Rainbow Sentences
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
First Phrases
Reported bugs
5 issues- 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)
Requested features
8 requests- Store recordings for progress tracking
- Add more phrases
- Allow more student profiles
- Save multiple recordings
- Repeat targeted phrase with icons on all pages
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- Data collection feature
- Add more verb-noun combinations
- Data tracker for student progress
In-app purchases
Rainbow Sentences
No in-app purchases
First Phrases
- In-app purchase$0.99
Questions
Is Rainbow Sentences free?
Is First Phrases free?
Which has better reviews, Rainbow Sentences or First Phrases?
Do Rainbow Sentences or First Phrases have ads?
Which is updated more often, Rainbow Sentences or First Phrases?
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