Cimo Spelling (Sight Words) vs Keyword Understanding
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Cimo Spelling (Sight Words)
This educational game helps kindergarten through 3rd graders build a strong foundation in reading and spelling. Children learn high-frequency and sight words through an engaging penguin-themed adventure. Parents can track progress with detailed reports and customize learning levels.
- Teaches Dolch Sight Word list
- Interactive penguin-themed gameplay
- Progress reports for parents
- Customizable question settings
- Grade-appropriate learning levels
- Professional voice recordings
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This is a great app for kindergarten through 3rd grade children. It teaches a combination of high frequency and sight words (from the Dolch Sight Word list). The list of 255 words was selected to cover words that a child encounters most often when learning to read (high frequency), including words that cannot be learned using pictures (sight words). Learning to spell these words adds to a strong foundation in reading and spelling for beginning readers. In this game, your child will help Cimo the penguin reach an iceberg to catch fish. Each correct letter chosen adds a block to his bridge. Finish the word and Cimo can cross, but watch out for wrong letters, or Cimo will take a dip! This is the fun game to improve your child's spelling abilities. Also included is a progress report for parents. The report allows them to track their child’s performance in spelling the sight and high frequency words, and provides play history with game details (i.e, On this date, your child has played level 1 and level 2 and in each game, what item has been asked and what your child has answered). An additional setup option allows for a parent or teacher to customize the number of questions to match their child. **In this new version, we add the options for self-correction (i.e, kids could correct their answer in the second try) and clearing out all the reports. This game will help your child improve their reading skills in a fun and interactive environment. Features This app is divided into 6 total levels to help children practice sight words in grade appropriate levels (Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, or 3rd grade), with one additional level for high freqency words. The final challenge level mixes all the words together and adds incorrect letter options to increase difficulty. **All words have been recorded by professional voice talent. *** If you have any questions or problems related to our app, please email us at playsmart.kids@gmail.com. We are willing to assist you.
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.
- 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
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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
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Cimo Spelling (Sight Words) at $1.99 against Keyword Understanding's $17.99. Cimo Spelling (Sight Words) also leads on update cadence (every 2 months vs every 10 months) and review sentiment (50% vs 25%). Keyword Understanding's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 3.3). On ratings volume, 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
Cimo Spelling (Sight Words) costs $1.99 and Keyword Understanding $17.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Keyword Understanding holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 3 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 50% of Cimo Spelling (Sight Words)'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.
Cimo Spelling (Sight Words) ships an update every 2 months, Keyword Understanding every 10 months. Both last shipped on October 23, 2026.
| Parameter | Cimo Spelling (Sight Words) | Keyword Understanding |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 — better | $17.99 |
| Rating | 3.3 (3 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews — better | 25.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 10 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 9.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 142 MB | 64 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Jariya Tuantranont | Aptus Speech and Language Therapy Limited |
Customer experience
Cimo Spelling (Sight Words)
Keyword Understanding
In-app purchases
Cimo Spelling (Sight Words)
No in-app purchases
Keyword Understanding
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Cimo Spelling (Sight Words) free?
Is Keyword Understanding free?
Which has better reviews, Cimo Spelling (Sight Words) or Keyword Understanding?
Do Cimo Spelling (Sight Words) or Keyword Understanding have ads?
Which is updated more often, Cimo Spelling (Sight Words) or Keyword Understanding?
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