Phonogram Sounds vs Visual Math Karate
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Phonogram Sounds
This interactive app provides clear audio pronunciations for letter sounds and combinations, featuring all 72 basic phonograms from a popular language arts curriculum. It's designed to support reading and spelling development for learners of all ages.
- Hear correct pronunciation of sounds
- Clear enunciation of letters and combinations
- Includes all 72 basic phonograms
- Supports reading and spelling skills
- Interactive learning experience
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Touch a button and hear the correct pronunciation! *Check that your sound is turned on!* This interactive program features clear enunciation of the sounds of the letters and letter combinations (also known as phonograms). Contains all 72 of the basic phonograms as taught in the All About Reading and All About Spelling language arts curriculum. All About Reading is a multisensory, mastery-based program that starts with essential pre-reading skills and continues on to teach all five key components of reading. All About Spelling teaches encoding skills, spelling rules, and multisensory strategies to help your student become a proficient speller for life. Our lightly scripted “open and go” lesson plans and mastery-based approach leave no gaps and make this curriculum a favorite of homeschool families everywhere. Suitable for all ages and learning styles!
Visual Math Karate
This app helps young students build a strong math foundation through visualization and practice. It focuses on developing computational skills, mental math, and mastery of math facts for children from Pre-K to Grade 1. Advanced memory games and unique methods like ten frames are used to make learning engaging and effective.
- Develops computational skills
- Enhances mental math abilities
- Mastery of math facts
- Uses ten frames for visualization
- Advanced memory games
- Covers Pre-K to Grade 1 math
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Want your child to develop a strong math foundation for life? Visual Math Karate is designed to help young students develop strong computational skills, mental math, and mastery of math facts for life. Unlike many other math apps, advanced memory games are supported to keep things more interesting and challenging for young learners. Spanning from Pre-K to Grade 1, this unique method of counting, unitizing (or making groups of ten), adding and subtracting lays the foundation for understanding base-ten numbers and the place value system. We start with the use of ten frames to visualize numbers within 20 and continue with decomposing and composing numbers to find sums and differences to (finally!) release students from dependence on counting by ones. Through activities & games your child will learn a variety of strategies that will help her visualize, classify, compose, decompose, compare, add & subtract numbers. Acquiring these strategies are crucial for developing deep understanding of numbers, number sense, and the ability to fluently engage in all arithmetic operations. For Parents – Why Visual Math Karate? A bit of research: You may not realize this, but children learn two types of numbers. Each type is useful for a different reason. Ordinal numbers reflect the sequence of numbers (such as, counting numbers, 1, 2, 3, … 7, 8, 9). Numbers can also be used to indicate size or quantity. These are cardinal numbers (such as, I see 5 cats and 3 more cats. There are 8 cats altogether.) Many researchers show that understanding cardinality helps children acquire good number sense. For this reason, Visual Math Karate emphasizes cardinality & visualization. Research shows us that children who have learned to visualize ten frames can subitize (instantly recognize numbers). For example, look at our 8 ten frame. Children’s brains have learned to easily see a row of 5 and 3 more as 8. They see the 2 empty spaces, also. As such, children also will tell you that 8 is 2 dots away from 10 and that 8 and 2 make 10. Memorization or Visualization? Memorizing facts is not even necessary! Visualization helps children use strategies to do calculations mentally. Children enjoy using the ten frame and seeing how quickly their brains can do simple calculations. The bottom line: When children have a visual image of numbers quantities 1-10 with ten-frames, it is easier to use mental math to calculate. Visualization and practice lead to mastery. Moreover, early strategy-based learning will help children think about multi-digit calculations. The same cannot be achieved through memorization with drills. For Teachers – Why Visual Math Karate? Have you ever been perplexed at how easily and quickly students appear to backslide and forget basic math facts, even after they have shown mastery on timed tests? Why do many continue to use their fingers and counting strategies to add and subtract well into second grade? Visual Math Karate’ subitizing activities are designed to help young students readily identify the number of objects in a set without counting and develop the concept of cardinality. Cardinality is crucial for developing deep understanding of numbers, number sense, and the ability to fluently engage in arithmetic operations and comparisons. Understanding of numbers as quantities will enable students to decompose and compose numbers, unitize, or make groups of ten, which is the foundation for understanding base-ten numbers and the place value system.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Visual Math Karate at 5.0 against Phonogram Sounds's 4.0. Visual Math Karate also leads on update cadence (every 2 months vs every 6 months) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.0). Phonogram Sounds's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ratings volume (84 vs 1). On price, ads, monetization model and device support 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
Both are free to download. Visual Math Karate sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Phonogram Sounds asks for nothing beyond the download.
Visual Math Karate holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Phonogram Sounds has 84 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Phonogram Sounds ships an update every 6 months, Visual Math Karate every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and September 26, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Phonogram Sounds | Visual Math Karate |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (84 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 69.6% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 84 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 27 MB | 25 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | All About Learning Press, Inc. | East West Math LLC |
Customer experience
Phonogram Sounds
Visual Math Karate
Bugs and requests
Phonogram Sounds
Reported bugs
7 issues- R says /er/ instead of /r/
- Sound not working
- App crashes
- No sound when tapping phonograms
- Sound only works with ringer on
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- List of phonograms cut off on iPad
- App is stick, no audio, no movement
Requested features
9 requests- Videos showing lip/tongue placement
- Interactive game app
- App for building words/movable tiles
- Level-based sound availability
- Enlarging tapped tile
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- Adding missing phonograms (Level 6, Spalding)
- Adding more sounds for /i/, /e/, /x/, /ou/, /ei/, /oe/, /wor/, /ear/
- Spelling lists for review
- All About Reading app with word reading
Visual Math Karate
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Phonogram Sounds
No in-app purchases
Visual Math Karate
- Premium Account For One Year$12.99
Questions
Is Phonogram Sounds free?
Is Visual Math Karate free?
Which has better reviews, Phonogram Sounds or Visual Math Karate?
Do Phonogram Sounds or Visual Math Karate have ads?
Which is updated more often, Phonogram Sounds or Visual Math Karate?
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