Comparison

Rainbow Sentences 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

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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

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
Read full description

“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: Rainbow Sentences at 94% against Keyword Understanding's 25%. Rainbow Sentences also leads on price ($9.99 vs $17.99) and ratings volume (15 vs 3). Keyword Understanding's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 3.7) and device support (3 vs 1). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

Rainbow Sentences costs $9.99 and Keyword Understanding $17.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Keyword Understanding holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Rainbow Sentences has 15 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 94% of Rainbow Sentences'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

Rainbow Sentences ships an update every 6 months, Keyword Understanding every 10 months. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Rainbow Sentences versus Keyword Understanding: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRainbow SentencesKeyword Understanding
Price$9.99 — better$17.99
Rating3.7 (15 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews94.4% of reviews — better25.0% of reviews
Number of ratings15 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 6 months — betterEvery 10 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidPaid
DevicesiPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS11.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size179 MB64 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMobile Education Store LLCAptus Speech and Language Therapy Limited

Customer experience

Rainbow Sentences

All ratings15 ratings
Positive66.7%
Neutral13.3%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews90 reviews
Positive94.4%
Neutral3.3%
Negative2.2%

Keyword Understanding

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

Bugs and requests

Rainbow Sentences

Reported bugs

15 issues
  • Advertisement cannot be gotten rid of
  • App loads into settings
  • Program loads into settings options
  • Advertisement for another Mobile app that cannot be gotten rid of
  • App description page only scrolls partway
Show 10 more
  • App does not work at all
  • Only get a picture and no words
  • Email stats button not working
  • Unable to email stats
  • Screen not displaying correctly
  • Problem with iPad settings
  • Cannot go from sentence building to settings or statistics page until/unless sentence is correctly built
  • Play Lesson button placement issue
  • Difficulty dragging words
  • Color scheme does not match industry standard Fitzgerald Key

Requested features

31 requests
  • Remove ads from paid app
  • Set app to load into play mode by default
  • Restrict settings for adults only
  • Add questions and past/future tenses
  • Make pictures more age-appropriate for high school
Show 26 more
  • Turn off the puzzle feature
  • Move 'Play Lesson' button
  • Add foreign language versions
  • Vocalize words when first selected
  • Categorize words by parts of speech
  • Provide definitions of parts of speech
  • Add more levels with additional parts of speech
  • Option to remove picture clue
  • Move text placement lines closer to picture
  • Enlarge text size
  • Words on the bottom of the screen to speak when touched
  • Set custom color coding
  • Accommodate different country spellings
  • More sentences required for each reinforcer/puzzle piece
  • More immediate feedback with each correct answer
  • Words at the bottom of the picture spoken instead of printed
  • Option to auto-advance to the next level
  • Make the child place the puzzle piece themselves
  • Variety of praise statements instead of just 'That's right'
  • More reward puzzles per level
  • Multi-player option
  • Option to move a word back to the word bank
  • Allow children to place earned puzzle pieces themselves
  • More interest level choices for sentences
  • Different country spellings
  • More levels with increased difficulty for older users

Keyword Understanding

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Rainbow Sentences

No in-app purchases

None

Keyword Understanding

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Rainbow Sentences free?
Rainbow Sentences costs $9.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Keyword Understanding free?
Keyword Understanding costs $17.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Rainbow Sentences or Keyword Understanding?
Keyword Understanding is rated higher. Rainbow Sentences averages 3.7 out of 5 from 15 ratings, while Keyword Understanding averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do Rainbow Sentences or Keyword Understanding have ads?
Neither Rainbow Sentences nor Keyword Understanding shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Rainbow Sentences or Keyword Understanding?
Rainbow Sentences ships an update every 6 months, and Keyword Understanding every 10 months. Most recently, Rainbow Sentences was updated on October 21, 2026 and Keyword Understanding on October 23, 2026.

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