Smarty Spell vs Listening Power Intermediate
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Smarty Spell
This comprehensive literacy platform offers three engaging game modes to improve spelling and reading skills. It features extensive customization options for word lists and audio, along with detailed progress tracking for educators and parents.
- Three distinct game modes
- Over 300 built-in words
- Grade-level and thematic word lists
- Custom word lists with photos
- Real human and TTS audio
- Professional-grade data tracking
- Adjustable font sizes and hints
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Smarty Spell: The Ultimate 3-in-1 Literacy Platform Developed by a certified Speech-Language Pathologist, Smarty Spell has evolved into a comprehensive educational platform designed to take your student’s spelling and reading abilities to the next level. With a highly engaging new interface, friendly animal mascots, and superior data tracking, Smarty Spell is the perfect tool for educators, therapists, and parents alike. While it comes loaded with over 300 built-in words, the true power of Smarty Spell lies in its incredible flexibility. Students can tackle words based on their grade level (Kindergarten to 6th Grade), explore thematic categories, or master completely custom word lists created by their teacher. Three Ways to Play: Smarty Spell now features three distinct, interactive game modes to keep students engaged while targeting different literacy skills: Spelling Game: Drag and drop letters to spell the target word with full visual and auditory scaffolding. Reading Game: Build sight-word recognition by matching the spoken word and image to the correct text. Missing Letter Game: A fun, tactile experience where students fill in the blanks on a beautiful wooden tray to complete the word. Unmatched Customization & Accessibility: Smarty Spell adapts to every learner. Reinforce specific vocabulary by adding your own words and photos! The app seamlessly blends real, recorded human audio with a newly integrated, high-quality, kid-friendly Text-to-Speech engine, ensuring every word—even your custom ones—is pronounced perfectly. You can also adjust font sizes, toggle visual hints, and switch between uppercase and lowercase letters to meet each student's exact needs. Professional-Grade Data Tracking: Tracking progress is a breeze with our completely overhauled "Report Card" suite. Teachers and parents can monitor overall accuracy over time via intuitive line graphs, or drill down into specific word lists. Because the app tracks data by game type, you will know exactly if a student has mastered "Animals" in Reading, but still needs practice with "Animals" in Spelling! Enjoy the benefits of a clean, modern interface, engaging gameplay, and robust tracking. Key Features Include: The Content: 3 Distinct Game Modes: Spelling, Reading, and Missing Letter. Over 300 Built-In Words: Ready to play immediately. Grade-Level Lists: Organized sequentially from Kindergarten to 6th Grade. Thematic Lists: Animals, Numbers, Colors & Shapes, Classroom, Body Parts, Common Nouns, Clothes, Fruits, and Vegetables. Total Customization: Create custom lists, add new words, and even upload your own photos and audio recordings. The Gameplay: Premium Audio: High-quality, kid-friendly Text-to-Speech alongside real human audio recordings. Audio Spell Letters: Option to have each letter spoken aloud as the student drags it. Visual Hints: Toggle picture clues on or off to increase or decrease difficulty. Word Reading: Turn target word dictation on or off. Capitalization Control: Choose between all capitals, all lowercase, or standard capitalization. Adjustable UI: 3 different font size options for accessibility. Automatic Transition: Move immediately to the next word, or manually transition to control the pace. The Data: Multi-Student Support: Manage profiles and avatars for an entire classroom or caseload. Advanced Report Cards: View line graphs of session-by-session accuracy. Skill Isolation: Data is tracked independently for Reading, Spelling, and Missing Letter games so you know exactly where a student excels. Word-Level Mastery: See exactly which specific words a student got correct or needs to practice. Easy Exporting: Generate beautiful, multi-page PDF reports to email or print directly from the app via AirPrint.
Listening Power Intermediate
This app offers over 1000 listening practice questions for children aged 5-10, focusing on auditory processing and language comprehension. It includes various activities like listening for descriptions, meaning, grammar, and stories, with adjustable difficulty levels.
- Over 1000 listening practice questions
- Five distinct learning activities
- Adjustable difficulty levels (Easy, Intermediate, Advanced)
- Data collection and progress tracking
- Reward animations and fun breaks
- Optional text display for reading comprehension
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Listening Power Intermediate provides over 1000 listening practice questions on a variety of Apple devices (iPhone, iPad and Macbook). Designed by Patti Hamaguchi, MA, CCC-SLP, a licensed speech-language pathologist and developer of the popular Fun with Directions app, it is perfect for children at a language age of 5 through 12 or any child learning English. Does your child need practice listening or working on receptive language concepts? Is auditory processing of language concepts difficult? Listening Power Intermediate was designed for children with delayed language comprehension, AD/HD, weak listening or auditory processing, autism, and English language learners but ANY child can enjoy these fun activities to strengthen listening! Children with CAPD (central auditory processing disorder) can practice listening to stories with simulated background noise as an option to build their ability to "tune out" noise distractions and improve their auditory figure-ground skills. By turning on the “text on” feature, it can also be used for reading decoding/comprehension as well! This app should ideally be played with an adult who can teach and cue the child when appropriate during the activities and make the proper settings selections. As with all screen time, app play should be limited. A perfect app for speech-language therapy and reinforcing auditory skills! Data collection results can be emailed, saved or printed. Stories and questions also available for printing out for further practice. There are 5 activities in the app: Listening for Descriptions: Adjectives such as longest/shortest, empty/full, curly/straight, between, etc. Intermediate: Find the blue bird with an orange beak that is sitting on a nest. 50 questions for each level. Total 150 Listening for Meaning: Vocabulary terms are introduced in context with a follow-up question. Intermediate: The infant was sitting in the chair. Who was sitting in the chair? A baby/teenage boy/woman/very old man 50 questions for each level. Total 150 Listening for Grammar: plurals, verb tenses, pronouns, preposition concepts, and negation! Find the sentence with a mistake: She falled off the bed/He ate four grapes/The dog bit him. 50 questions for each level. Total 150 Listening for Word Memory: 9 pictures are shown. The child is asked to listen and remember the words in order. 2-6 word series are provided. There are unlimited combinations for this activity! Listening for Stories (Narrative language!): Easy level: A story is read with accompanying pictures and sound effects, followed by questions about the story such as who, what, and where questions. Intermediate has pictures at beginning/end only and more challenging questions. Advanced: Only pictures for non-fiction narratives, science fiction stories. 25 Stories for each level, with 5 questions each. Total 375 Use "custom select" to find stories that interest your child. Features include: Easy, Intermediate and Advanced levels within each activity. Auto Advance/Drop makes the questions easier or more challenging, depending on your child’s choices; Door or basketball game included for a fun break; data collection, pop-up reward animations, individual and group play for up to 75 users; text on/off feature available to work on reading decoding and comprehension, options for 2, 3 or 4 choices to be shown. Tech support: info@hamaguchiapps.com We do not collect any personal information or data from this app. Apps do not require WiFi connection once downloaded as it is a self-contained app.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Listening Power Intermediate at 5.0 against Smarty Spell's 4.0. Listening Power Intermediate also leads on review sentiment (25% vs 0%). Smarty Spell's advantage is price ($14.99 vs $19.99) and update cadence (every 9 months vs every 25 months). 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
Smarty Spell costs $14.99 and Listening Power Intermediate $19.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Listening Power Intermediate holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of Smarty Spell's written reviews are positive against 25% of Listening Power Intermediate's.
Smarty Spell ships an update every 9 months, Listening Power Intermediate every 25 months. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Smarty Spell | Listening Power Intermediate |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $14.99 — better | $19.99 |
| Rating | 4.0 (2 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | 25.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 9 months — better | Every 25 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 97 MB | 1016 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Smarty Ears | Hamaguchi Learning & Development, LLC |
Customer experience
Smarty Spell
Listening Power Intermediate
In-app purchases
Smarty Spell
No in-app purchases
Listening Power Intermediate
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Smarty Spell free?
Is Listening Power Intermediate free?
Which has better reviews, Smarty Spell or Listening Power Intermediate?
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Which is updated more often, Smarty Spell or Listening Power Intermediate?
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