Comparison

Keyword Understanding vs Comprehension Builder

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
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.

About

Comprehension Builder

Features
Read full description

** Happy Frog Apps is a Mom’s Choice Award Winner! Also featured on FunEducationalApps.com, TeachersWithApps.com, and more! ** The “Comprehension Builder” app builds skills in passage comprehension, working memory and answering multiple choice questions about a text. What parents say about our awesome apps: *** 5 stars! Brilliant! An app that understands how kids actually learn. Thank you. *** 5 stars! Every one of your apps that I’ve tried is great! When using “Comprehension Builder”, your learner will first read a passage. The learner must then hold the information in memory in order to answer a multiple choice question. To build sustained attention and working memory, early levels contain 2-sentence texts with limited word count. As comprehension is demonstrated and memory increases, the texts increase in length and difficulty. “Comprehension Builder” contains 200+ fiction and non-fiction texts on a variety of topics. This app is perfect for learners who: - when reading or listening, information seems to ‘go in one ear and out the other.’ - have trouble responding to questions about a text unless they can refer back to the text. - can understand each sentence, but don’t seem to put them together to make meaning from the text as a whole. Additional Features: - Incremental learning. New levels are unlocked only when your child demonstrates mastery. - Fun and engaging Reward Center to increase motivation. - Contains over 600 questions, with content designed by professional teachers and researchers. Our apps are designed for and tested by typical and special needs children. Testers include children with Autism and other special needs. Our apps work for them! Our apps are also suitable for adults dealing with aphasia or learning English as a Second Language. To evaluate the app, download the free version, which has 2 free levels. The remaining levels accessed with an in-app purchase. If you prefer no in-app purchases, download the School Edition (SE) version of this app, which includes all levels and up to 10 users. We take customer service very seriously! If you ever have a problem or find that we've missed something, contact us at our website and we will do our best to fix the problem.  www.HappyFrogApps.com Our apps are safe for kids. We collect NO private information in our app. None! Our apps do not allow unrestricted web or social media access. We conform to the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

Screenshots

Keyword Understanding4 screens
Comprehension Builder4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Comprehension Builder at $7.99 against Keyword Understanding's $17.99. Comprehension Builder also leads on iOS requirement (12.2 vs 15.0). Keyword Understanding's advantage is update cadence (every 10 months vs every 40 months). On ads, in-app purchases 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Keyword Understanding costs $17.99 and Comprehension Builder $7.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Keyword Understanding ships an update every 10 months, Comprehension Builder every 40 months. The most recent releases landed on September 3, 2026 and September 19, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Keyword Understanding versus Comprehension Builder: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterKeyword UnderstandingComprehension Builder
Price$17.99$7.99 — better
Rating5.0 (3 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews25.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings3 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 10 months — betterEvery 40 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.012.2 — better
Further details — not scored
Size64 MB50 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAptus Speech and Language Therapy LimitedJanine Toole

In-app purchases

None

Keyword Understanding

No in-app purchases

None

Comprehension Builder

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Keyword Understanding free?
Keyword Understanding costs $17.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Comprehension Builder free?
Comprehension Builder costs $7.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do Keyword Understanding or Comprehension Builder have ads?
Neither Keyword Understanding nor Comprehension Builder shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Keyword Understanding or Comprehension Builder?
Keyword Understanding ships an update every 10 months, and Comprehension Builder every 40 months. Most recently, Keyword Understanding was updated on September 3, 2026 and Comprehension Builder on September 19, 2026.

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