Phonograms by SEI App Reviews

Awful App. I downloaded this app to help my son with his phonograms & being something you have to pay for you would think it would work properly but you can’t even hear the sounds of the letters so a complete waste of money.

Sound not working. Really frustrated that I spent $4 on this app and the sound does not work. Many reviews said that you just need to be sure your volume is on but mine is all the way up and no sound comes out at all. Spalding Phonics is a great program but this app needs to be fixed!

No Sound????. Finally read the other reviews and figured out the reason there was no sound was because my phone is on silent (switch on side of phone). Really? Can the developer fix this? This shouldn’t be happening!

I like it but needs work.. I like that I can make a list specifically for the phonograms my kid is learning but don’t like that I can’t make another list for my other kids. Please make it so that I can make multiple differentiated lists that can be saved and removed easily. Recommended by my kids teacher for Spalding.

No volume problems. My daughters teacher suggested this. Value at $4. Volume works fine. Bad reviews seem to be fixed or user error.

This is horrible. I should have read the reviews before purchasing. Spalding Method is a great way to teach kids to read and write but this app is seriously deficient. Like so many other reviewers, I can’t get the sound to work. It is not operator error - why hasn’t this been fixed? The complaints go back years. What a waste.

No Sound. I just purchased this App and can’t use it! I thought this problem would have already been taken care of. Want my money back!

Total waste- no sound for a PHONOGRAM app??. As many people have said, there is no sound. I figured out that if I take my phone off silent mode (using the physical switch on the phone), it works. BUT there is not this switch on an iPad!! Ughhh.

Unable to fix a major bug. This is a pretty great app for reviewing phonograms. Though recently it stopped making sounds on my iPhone. I’m unable to trouble shoot where the problem is and had to download it on my iPad.

Help no sound. This is a great tool, the only problem is that sound works sometimes I don’t know what happens but their are days when no sound for the phonograms is available. It’s frustrating because I paid for this app to have my kid practice the sounds of phonograms.

Do not buy (October 2022). Was recommended by kids school. However, it totally does not make any sound no matter what. Tried to contact the APP, either fix it or refund. No reply yet. Will update review when there is an update.

Definitely supplements school learning. I have been using this app for 2 years and it has been very helpful. Many people refer to sound issues and I wonder if it is the same thay I experienced that if my phone/ringer is switched to silent mode, then I won't hear the sounds in the app. However, a quick flip of a switch and it works fine for me. The app is great for me because I want to reinforce what is learned in class and not contradict. There have been many instances where I've questioned how I even learned growing up. I can open the open, pick a few phonograms and let the sound play and my child write. We are both learning in the process. Huge time saver and it doesn't make me look as bad in front of my kiddos. I gave 4-stars because I would like to have a quicker method of selecting specific phonograms I want to work on. It is a very basic app that could use some user interface enhancements. Oh, and enabling sound to work with phone on silent mode would be great.

Total crap. It’s a pain to use and I thought it was broken because you only hear sound when you take your phone off vibrate. It’s a terrible design flaw and the app is pretty crappy overall

Perfect to practice with my Kindergartner. My first lenguaje in not English so even when I speak a very fluent English I have to admit that I was never tough all the phonograms while learning English. Being said this I don't expect the app does the whole job of teaching my son but it has been a big help to practice with him the sounds each letter does. Like I said this is great for practice and we love it!! I am not sure why people says sound doesn't work but for me it works every single time I open it. I would love to click on any letter randomly without having to go through the list and hear the sound but still it does the job and it has been very helpful. Love it!!!

Useful. I highly recommend this application. I will say parents do have to put their part in selecting and keeping up with the appropriate curriculum/ syllabus. Had no issues with sounds. I found this application to be helpful for my child, and he was only in kindergarten and reading.

Black screen. I just got this app and so far I haven’t had the sound issue that other users have encountered. However, I have my phone set to a “dark” appearance in settings which makes the screen completely black without showing the letters in written phonogram review. I have to change my settings to “light” appearance to show the letters. The app could use an update to adjust for this change. Otherwise, I agree it would be better to be able to write in the app as opposed to having to use your own paper.

DO NOT RECOMMEND. ** DO NOT RECOMMEND** I paid for this app to help my child learn for school curriculum but the sound went out. I thought it was my phone but it just randomly lost sound and no matter how much I restart or remove and reinstall the app sound is gone. I got to use it maybe 2 times and then lost sound. Please FIX iPhone 7 Plus

I cannot get the sound to work. I am not able to use this paid app. I am very disappointed with the app. It should be easy to used but instead I have waisted a few hours trying to get the sound to work.

Wish you could write the letters. It would be great if you could write the phonograms with your finger or a stylus. Also, why does the speaker not say the clues with the phonograms? How are the kids supposed to learn the difference between aw and au or oi and oy? For the price of this app these features should be included in the app.

I ignored the reviews, I shouldn’t have.. I thought they’d improve it, but yes, it’s truly impossible to find any of the phonograms as they’re divided into lesson format and there isn’t even a lesson overview. If that isn’t bad enough, you can’t skip over any phonograms without “hearing” and waiting for all the phonograms before it and there’s no birds view or way to skip. My kids are learning with the Spaulding curriculum in their charter and I was hoping to help them catch up and help them learn them at home, but this app makes me want to pull my freaking hair out!

Lifesaver. I’ve been having my 6yr old work on the phonograms in this app and have seen improvement in his reading skills in just 2 weeks. Phonograms are a reading game-changer.

Love it!. Works great for allowing kids to practice. For those that say no sound make sure your phone is not on silent.

Excellent. This app is excellent for learning Spalding phonograms. Not sure why it has such low stars. We’ve used it for 3 children in preschool and kindergarten and they can all read and sound out words. I would highly recommend this app if you’re teaching someone to read.

Sound doesn’t work anymore. This app no longer plays the sounds for each phonogram so it’s pretty useless. I deleted and re-downloaded the app, but it still won’t work. I wish the developers would come out with a new version that fixes this issue.

Dissapointing! From a Kinder Teacher. I am the parent of a kindergartener AND teacher of 22 Kinders! I downloaded for my daughter and was so excited to recommend to my parents. I will not be doing that. WPR does not show unless I change my phone settings which I should not have to do. Less tech savvy parents (most of them) would not either. Also, it’s super disappointing that there is not any kind of feedback option for OPR or WPR (like Duolingo). You should be able to write or speak directly into the app for true feedback. Hoping for these fixes!

Phonograms app. It was a great app, up until last week. For some reason now, when we do the oral or written review of the phonograms it’s not working. It’s always listening the phonograms in the same order and not out of order like it’s supposed to; and also it not saying any clues words for the phonograms. I don’t know what’s going on but please fix it. I tried to delete and reinstall the app and it’s still not working

Unable to see the options. Since the latest OS update the app is unusable. Select a lesson and then the buttons at the bottom are all black. So the button is black and the text is black which means there is no telling what each is for. It’s incredibly frustrating.

Low quality design. I was surprised a how boring and ugly this is to keep kids engaged. Bought because the school required but there are better programs. In the write portion when clicking show me, the screen stays black as the pencil goes away but dent reveal. This barely works and for $3.99 you’ll be robbed

I paid money for this?. This app is horribly designed. It assumes the teacher is following their lesson plans exactly. I have to go into multiple lessons to hunt for each phonogram that my child is currently learning. Would be so much nicer to have other options on how to choose the phonograms you want to practice. Also, some sounds in the higher frequencies (such as ph) come across poorly on the phone speaker. This is a problem considering this app is all about speech sounds! Overall, it was a great idea to make phonograms easier to practice, but the execution of the design is incredibly poor... especially for the price.

No sound- don't buy. There is no sound for the app. This makes the app pretty much useless. Perhaps this app was made for teachers, but the format is also not user friendly for parents. A more helpful version would allow students to practice individually.

Needs A Lot of Improvement. Users should be able to select which phonograms to work on (based on what their child’s teacher is covering, not the app’s grouping). Also the written practice doesn’t work in my app; it just has a black screen even after I press “show me”. I restarted the app and restarted my phone, but it didn’t resolve the issue. We can’t really use this, and I’m bummed I paid money for an app that doesn’t work. Others should just buy Spalding’s practice cards.

Using as a parent, app has absolutely no sounds even after several redownloads.. Would not purchased this if our kid’s teacher didn’t require it.

Written portion does not work! 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️. I just paid for this app today after ordering a large amount of curriculum from them. The written part absolutely needs to be fixed. How helpful it would be especially if you could trace letters in the app after seeing them formed. A cursive and print option would be nice as well.

There is no sound and no app support either. I am hoping I can still use this purchase instead of having to buy the $14 cards. The Spalding company is really ruthless. They did not invent phonograms. But they have a monopoly on our education system so we are stuck with them.

Poorly designed. As others have mentioned you can’t select the phonograms you want to study. You’re limited to going through the selected groups. But by far my biggest complaint is that the sound no longer works in the app. I’ve reinstalled and restarted but it doesn’t help. Save your money.

Sound issues. This is has sound issues, sometimes it works and most of the time it doesn’t, so as a teacher in Spalding training having to pay for an app that doesn’t work does not support my learning as a teacher; and therefore doesn’t support learning for students either. I would expect more.

You can’t actually write the phonograms in this app. You can’t actually write the phonograms in this app. You also can’t go to the next phonogram the only thing you can do is push the button “show me” and it actually shows you nothing. There’s no point of even having this if you can’t do these things.

Waste of money. Paid 3.99 because it helps to hear the sounds. Open the app and it won’t play the sound of the words. Waste of money and as mentioned you can’t navigate to the sounds you need.

Great for parents at least!. This application have helped our family so much. Every single day from Monday to Thursday we use it to help us with our kindergarten student to do her homework. She is getting the best scores in the tests for the subject. We are more than pleased with this awesome app. We specially love the free section to check any phonogram and dictate to our kiddo. Is simply and once you try all the sections you can use it as your special homework-helper. 👌

Found out why sound doesn't work. My sound wouldn't work when I first purchased this app, even if my volume was all the way up. I found out that if my phone ringer is switched to silent (left side switch on i phone) then sound won't work.

Good for the car. The oral part of this app is great, my daughter can practice in the car and I can hear her. We can not get the written part of this app to work. Kind of bummed because it would be fun for her to practice writing in the car also. I hope that a fix comes soon.

POOR Design; please fix it!. I find it astounding that the developer(s) hasn’t taken action to address some basic issues with this app. So many reviews here about people having problems with the sound, but after NUMEROUS attempts, I accidentally figured out that it was due to my phone being on silent! Why on earth would somebody do that?? So frustrating! On top of that, there’s no FAQ or troubleshoot feature. If you’re having any sort of issue, you’re out of luck! The content has been helpful for our child, but this app makes me angry in just how poorly designed it is! NOT WORTH IT!

Does not match the order at school. This app really needs a way to choose the phonograms you want to practice. My son’s teacher is not going in the same order as the lists in the app, making it hard to practice using the app. I have to hunt around the different app lists to find the ones he is currently learning. To make matters worse, there is supposed to be a “select” button available in the differentiated practice that would somewhat allow you to do this, but it is not there. This makes the differentiated practice function useless.

Written phonogram review doesn’t work. The written phonogram review portion of the app doesn’t work on my iPhone 14. When I hit the “show me” button the screen is blank. I like the rest of the app and find this part unique and potentially helpful with kids with disabilities but it doesn’t work! I’m very disappointed.

Won’t work on multiple devices. Paid $4 to download on my sons kindle fire - it will do about half the phonograms and then the volume will cut out and it won’t make any more sounds. I also paid another $4 to download on the iPad thinking it would work better, and it doesn’t make any sounds at all through the iPad. My volume is working and other apps are working fine, so it’s just this app that isn’t working.

Love it!. Sound works; just make sure your ringer is set to “on”. The writing section is meant to be used along with paper and the answers are shown as flash cards to check your work. I like this bc it requires them to practice their handwriting as they are supposed to; not on a screen. This was a great option for us to supplement the work that is happening at school while only spending $4. My girls (3 and 5) are doing so well with this program! I think it just needs a website or video to explain its features. I wish they had audio available to remind children of the rules as they write. “Start at the top line…” I recommend this app to anyone with a young reader!

Misunderstood App. The app is very efficient. I was skeptical after reading a couple of reviews, and saying that the ratings for it is 1.9. But after downloading it because of the school my child goes to, it turns out very simple and easy to use. It has a differentiate practice option that allows you to choose what letters you want to practice that is part of the curriculum and or homework for that week. By choosing the letters I was able to do the OPR and the WPR that was base on the home work. This option made it super easy for him to focus.

Works well. I used this method 10-15 years ago. Now using again for grandchild. It works. I had no sound so check settings under ringer and turned it on. No visual for writing practice so had to go to light mode in display. Choose your set, pick differentiated section, choose the phonograms and go back and only the checked ones will be presented. Feb2024.

Sometimes the sound works and sometimes it doesn’t. This app stops properly working when it needs to be updated and the sound will sometimes work. I have closed out of the app and reopened and still no sound. Super frustrating

Turn your phone off silent. It’s really frustrating, but make sure your phone is not on silent while using the app and the sound should work. This definitely should be fixed though I agree with all of you. Now can someone tell me how the writing part works?

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No sound!. Does anyone know how to activate the sound?

Where’s the sound. No volume??????? What is the purpose of this app if there is no sound? How do I get a refund?

Issue with the audio. The app was great for the first 24 hours and then the sound stopped working and I don’t know why. The app is virtually useless without the audio.

No volume. There is no volume after downloading. How can I fix it?

Updated version. The options to choose what to click are in dark font colour, so we can’t choose unless we touch the panels?

APP DOESNT WORK. Paid for this and the app sound doesn’t work!

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Sound stays off. Too tricky to trouble shoot how to make the phonograms play their sounds. Very frustrating.

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Perfect for scholas. This app is designed perfectly for scholars who are struggling with their phonograms.

Horrible. The phonogram sounds doesn’t work 98% of the time. I’m guessing it’s due to the fact that it has not been an update released in 4yearssssss!! It’s so crappy that you have to pay for this.

Sound doesn’t work. Sound isn’t working so it’s not saying the phonogram.

Horrible App. The app has certain phonogram groups and does not allow you to search for the groups your child is working on. Also, not all of the phonograms at pronounced correctly.

Sound doesn’t work. It won’t play the Audio and I have checked all setting on my phone. This app was recommended by my kids school and it’s a waste of money.

Sound. The sound doesn’t even work. Don’t waste your money.

Doesn’t work. Written part doesn’t work. Waste of money

Sound doesn’t work. The sound in the app doesn’t work. The whole reason for the app is to have your child hear the sound and practice.

I paid money for this too and it has no sound. I paid money for this app and it has no sound coming out.

Can’t get sounds to play. I cannot get any of the sounds to play on this app. This makes it difficult to hear and practice the phonograms correctly. Sadly a waste of money.

WPR show me does not show anything. I paid $4.27 with hopes to improve kid’s WPR and upset that first try of WPR just blanks as black screen when clicked ‘Show Me’ button on WPR . Is there a bug or something that you can fix ? Else please refund .

The negative reviews were correct. I use the spalding method- it’s been so great for us, however, this app stinks. Please update this so we can use it 😟 No sound, not very effective, etc.

App does not work. There is no sound, for an app that’s paid for and sound is important, this is no good

No sound. I had hoped that the sound issues others had mentioned had been resolved. I was wrong. No sound. No games. No ability to write in the writing portion. Completely useless.

Intermittent. The audio chooses when it wants to work. This is the only app on my phone that won’t play audio, so it is definitely the app failing.

Total waste of money. The audio fails to work. I want my $$$ back!

Where is the audio. App has no audio.

Terrible app. The sound does not work AT ALL. This app is useless without the sound. I am angry that I just wasted my money on a useless app.

What’s up with the sound. How can someone help their child or students if they can’t hear the sound! To pay for this app and not have it work is insane

Writing doesn’t work. I downloaded this app per teachers recommendation and it was a waste of money. The sounds work but I could get that from a free app. The writing part doesn’t work so my son has no interest in it at all. Don’t waste your money.

No sound. This app is terrible. I am so annoyed that I paid for it. The sound never works. We have tried using it on my daughter’s kindle as well as my iPad. There is no sound. This is extremely frustrating!

No sound. This app is useless! There is no sound with this app and there is no setting to adjust for any reason why it is silent. They need a better app.

Poorly designed. Not worth even a dollar. Horrible design. Cannot even put in or choose the phonograms you need

The app doesn’t even work. The sections are not white as shown in the photos—it’s black words on black background. The sound also doesn’t work. It’s basically unusable.

HELP. In the oral section…… you can’t hear anything…… I have tried it multiple times 😩😩😩😩😩😩😩

No sound. There is no sound during oral practice. Even when I hit replay sound I don’t hear anything

Very slow. It takes 4 seconds to download each phonogram. And it doesn’t save it in the cache memory. So you’re constantly downloading a phonogram

Horrible. The app doesn’t work at all. No sound. It does nothing. Waste of money.

Love Spalding. Really helpful for preparation and understanding of phonograms

No sound. Very disappointed that I purchased this app to hear the phonograms pronounced in the app and the sound doesn’t work at all

Terrible app. There is no sound .. it is definitely not my phone that is the problem because all my other apps are working

Does not work. This doesn’t work for the written. Doesn’t show the answer. Waste of money.

This app do not have sound why ?. There is no sound for Phonogram for what we have downloaded this app as well as paid the money

The app doesn’t work. The app does not work properly. The written phonograms are blank.

Sound quit after a month. Sound stopped completely after a month or so. Reinstalled and still no sound. Selecting the sounds for a teachers lesson is a hassle.

Doesn’t work. Just downloaded the app and the writing section of the app doesn’t work. The website doesn’t exist anymore to write a review either. I want my money back. Don’t buy this app.

Written part doesn't work. Bought this for my daughter to practice. It's pretty basic, but I'm not happy the written part doesn't work.

Doesn't provide examples. I would like to have word examples of sounds. Example of where "di" makes "j" sound. Certainly not in "did"

Sound doesn’t work. I’m sure the app would be great if it actuallly had sound attached to it but it defeats the purpose of it if you can’t hear the sounds to practice.

Removed cue words. Update removed any cue words? Also app is not compatible with dark mode.

Spalding Phonograms. App looks good but there is no sound coming up while clicking on any phonogram. Without sound its use less.

The sound does not work. It would not play the sounds on my phone rendering this app completely useless. Please fix the app because I would love to spend time with my kids reviewing their phonograms. I paid $4 for nothing!

Worst App Ever. The sound works inconsistently and there is absolutely no reason these boring flash card activities should have been converted into an app. Do not waste your money!!!!

Disappointed. I was really happy with this app but then two days ago the sound stopped working! I am annoyed that I have just wasted $3.99.

Writing problems. The writing portion is not working for 4 dollars I should be able to use it all.

Inlove the app. But there is problems with the menu

Not as pictured. The app doesn’t let you select manually the phonograms like the picture eludes to. Not really helpful unless you are using this as an out of school tutoring resource. Don’t waste your $

App has no sound. I bought this app as recommended by my child’s teacher and it does not work. It has no sound rendering the app useless.

Works fine. I was hesitant to buy this app after seeing all the low reviews but my daughters school recommended it. Additionally the teacher that recommended it showed us how to work it so it was at least working for her. After deciding to risk $4, I purchased it and mine works fine. For the complaints that the writing section doesn’t work, they need to read the instructions. You don’t actually write on the tablet. Instead it works like a flash card where you hear the sound and write the corresponding letter on line paper using proper technique. Then when you are ready, you have the app show you if you were right. As for the sounds not working, ours works fine so I can only guess it’s user error or their speaker doesn’t work well. Their expectations also may not be set right. The app doesn’t make continuous letter sounds. Instead it states it once which amounts to about 1 second of sound per letter unless the letter has more than one sound. Also if you are doing the sound quiz, it does not make a sound until the 3 second timer is up. The only reason it is not 5 stars is because the app is not very robust. I think it should have at least allowed for an optional writing element within the app instead of on paper. Plus it is not very feature reach or visually appealing for a $4 app. This app really needs to be $.99. But since my daughters school uses it, we went ahead and paid $4 for it. Normally I would rate this app with 3 stars but I wanted to give it a one star handicap to offset the negative reviews from those that didn’t follow instructions.

Spaulding Phonograms App. This app is absolutely worthless. I can’t believe Legacy Traditional Schools recommends this. I’ve tried downloading on both my iPad and iPhone 7 and it does not work. No sound. What’s the point?