Endless Alphabet
reviews and complaints

I really wish I could give this app a better rating but as a Kindergarten teacher I'm constantly bothered by some of the misconceptions it could possibly teach:
- Many sounds add an 'uh' to the end of the sound i.e. 'puh' instead of the pure sound 'p'
- Some sounds are just plains wrong such as 'ay' instead of 'a'
- Digraphs and trigraphs are ignored. I can understand this but the developers chose to make some of the letters make their digraph sounds and others not, which is just confusing. I know it's a great idea trying to teach children the extra vocabulary, but if you don't want to worry about irregular sounds why not just stick to simple decodable words?

Like I said the presentation is amazing and the developers have obviously put a lot of time and effort into something that is being given away for free. It's just with all that time and effort a little more time would have me giving this five stars and using it in class as well. As it is, it just goes against what I'm teaching the children in class.

This is a great app and my son really enjoys it.
I was moved to write by the silly review by Loobel2, who says that this app doesn't give kids what they need, and that you should give toddlers a box or something to encourage creative play.
My son indeed spends many happy hours playing with, and in, boxes. However, there comes a point on the cross-country flight to visit his grandparents when the 10 or 12 books in the diaper bag have all been read 4 times each, the Duplos have been built and rebuilt, the toy cars have been driven, and he's starting to climb the walls. Perhaps Loobel2 would recommend setting a box up in the plane aisle, but since stewardesses usually frown on that, I am delighted at such times to have a few quality iPhone apps with which to entertain him - not cartoony schlock, but interactive apps that engage him. The assumption that the use of iPhone apps for toddlers precludes appropriate developmental play seems to me to have been made by someone who isn't actively raising a toddler or who never travels with one.

I bought this app out of curiosity. While looking up apps to use in my pre-k classroom, I came across this one that was rated highly by everyone and many with children in the 16-18 month age range. First, many of the letter sounds are given incorrectly. For example /tu/ instead of /t/, /pu/ instead of /p/, etc. Second, this is just basically a spell a word, match some letters app. It would be much more appropriate for kinder to second grade, but they'd be bored with it.
When I said I bought this app out of curiosity that was only partly true. I also bought it so I could review it. I cannot stress enough how developmentally inappropriate this app is for your baby to three year old. Your child should be receiving human interaction at this stage, playing with blocks, games and toys that stimulate creativity, conversation, fine motor and gross motor development and problem solving. This does none of that. Don't waste your money. Instead get a box or something equally as fascinating to a toddler and let them be a kid. I promise, you will not have failed them if they are not reading novels by kindergarten.

If you have little ones, than you should have this little one too. In seriousness this app is incredible and by no means is it little.

Our daughter is almost 2 and she ignores most of the other apps that we had bought to keep her busy on trips or long outings. I belive the best part about this app would be that it really has some educational value. The app has seemed to help her recognize letters better than before we purchased it. (Maybe because she can't get enough. She really, really likes it.)

Everything about this app is a cut above the rest. From the art direction, with all its cute and colorfully crafted monsters, to the wonderfuly friendly voice over that helps sound out the letters and then reads the completed word. Not forgeting to mention the brief clear description and defenition of the word followed by an often humorous animation of said word. Let me add, this app is also easily navigated and very intuitive.

We picked this app up for $0.99 on a whim. After veiwing and playing it myself, I would have gladly paid more for it. I had no remorse after purchase. 100% satisfied. Great job developers!

This app is cute, no mistaking it. However, I do not recommend it and dissuade others from presenting it to their kids.
Though fun and well intended, it misinforms developing minds _how_ to sound out letters as one would for stringing the sounds together for reading. (The Endless Reader app does not correct this.)
Having realized the confusion caused via this teaching model our daughter no longer plays with this application. And, despite subsequent teaching presented to retrain her awareness and not having played the app in months, our five year old continues to express letter sound habits learned from this app. For example, when sounding out letters in a word, she'll tell us the sound of "L" is "la la la la la la la".
In addition, the fact the letters can be placed in any order, rather than only left to right, created confusion. Lastly, presenting everything in capital letters didn't facilitate accurate use or awareness of the alphabet.
Again, the app is wonderfully clever and fun. She loved playing with it. Hindsight informs, however, that its cuteness and entertainment value are not worth the habits learned.

I was stunned when my 4 yr old started using words like "Bellow" and "Cooperate" correctly in sentences. Then spouting off the definition as if he was a walking dictionary. If I could give this app more stars I would.

It addresses every aspect of learning the alphabet and then some. It starts by introducing your child to words like "Pester" and "Lopsided" instead of "pea" or "lion." Then it breaks the word up so your child has to place the correct letter in its place. But as you drag the letter it becomes animated and gives you the phonetic sound of each letter. Once your child has correctly finished the word, your met with a visual demonstration of the definition. A proven way of helping kids retain information. The short animation is followed up by a narrator giving the actual definition. And if that's not enough, they add little tidbits every once in a while about washing your hands or saying "excuse me". Huge fan! I hope they keep adding more words. It has been the only thing so far to break through to my son when it comes to learning his alphabet. (And I've tried a ton of things.) Thank you!

7 yr old big brother enjoys the app as well!

We've bought a lot of kids apps, many hit or miss. Endless Alphabet is BY FAR THE BEST GAME! And it's free!

The monster characters are well designed, cute, funny, and each has a unique personality. The phonics are flawless. The interface is super easy for kids to jump right in and start playing. They have very cleverly locked the none kid areas with a code system. Unless your kid can read letter words, they will not get into areas you don't want them to.

They publish new words all the time completely free. When my just turned 3 yr old started using words like "rainstorm", "tangle, and "opera" in his daily vocabulary (correctly I might add), I knew Endless Alphabet was the reason why.

Again the app is great and 100% free. The latest update adds a very unobtrusive sponsor ads scheme to help cover their costs. You can if you choose make a one time payment to remove those. They are so hidden you really don't need to, but I love this app so much I was very happy to pay that small fee.

I think they should look at the angry birds model and sell quality tshirts, hoodies, etc. with the different monsters. We would totally buy some!

GET THIS APP FOR YOUR KIDS!

I swear this app has taught my daughter to read by 2.8 years old. I got it for her when she about 1.5 and it used to be all about the phonetics. I wanted her to learn the phonetics of all the letters and the sounds it makes while dragging the letters does that. Also, it impresses people when your 1.5 year old looks like she knows how to spell "catastrophe". Cut to tonight when I got her a post Christmas book "Go Dog Go" by Dr. Seuss and she effing started reading! I had no idea she could read but she had never seen this book and she started reading it word for word and my wife an I were in actual shock. I immediately recorded it.

We had fears she was learning slowly and now I am planning on which school at MIT to send her! ;) seriously, what a great app. I am sure we owe all of this ability to this app and I decided to write a review to express our happiness. I very rarely write reviews and never this long so please, go help out America and make your child smarter by getting him or her this app. I don't even mean that with hyperbole. It's amazing! Well worth whatever I paid for it. Don't know why I wasted money on hooked on phonics of which I never use. Thanks thanks thanks thanks!

This App does what so many others claim to...
It teaches letter sounds and word sounds in a way that captivates children and adults alike.
The animated letters, sounds and funny videos are simple, clever and keep attention from wandering.
Our two year old makes all the sounds and knows the words too!
All of our older children ask us to replay their favorites over and over...

It does not have a lot of features making it perfect for young learners as it focuses mainly on the letter and sound interface,
The menu is simple and accessed by a simple word to number pass lock, easily keeping the child in the learning portion of the App, and new words load occasionally when you do connect using one of the menu options.

This App is a simple tool demonstrating letter sounds for young children in a funny, animated format.
It is not an extended vocabulary building tool, but you will be impressed how quickly your child imitates all the letter sounds and is able to recognize the letters when using this educational tool.

People who use speech therapy for their children may benefit from using this app because children imitate the catchy, funny sounds the letters make when moved by their fingers!

A very good, fun App!

We love this app for reasons beyond what most of the other reviews have mentioned!

The visual reinforcement using the animation is an awesome way for children with hearing loss to pick up on spoken definitions. Learning to spell and reading comprehension is difficult for children who may not hear all of the speech sounds. Deaf children are visual learners. My son does have access to spoken english and likes to practice his letter sounds with this app. I appreciate that you have made the vowel sounds (long or short) be appropriate for the word they are placed in. It is also wonderful that you are presenting interesting vocabulary words in more than one way.

The graphics and animations are also simple and large enough that a child with a visual impairment can appreciate this app as well. Having the definition read aloud and the letters making all the sounds makes this app more accessible.

I have one recommendation regarding a way to make this app even more accessible for my sons peers. You may want to add a parental setting that will turn on either simple definitions for the words to be a companion to the spoken definitions, or have the spoken definitions, which are really great, captioned.

Great work to everyone on your team!

This app is simply brilliant!

My 6 year old daughter is an advanced reader, and my 15 month old son doesn't read at all (obviously), yet they both get so engaged by this app. They even play it together, with my daughter taking the lead and trying to teach her brother. Finding anything that has educational qualities and can hold my 15 month old's attention for more than ten minutes is amazing in itself. Finding somethings that also engages my daughter so they are playing, learning, and teaching together... well that's just "epic!"

From the parent perspective, the app is enjoyable. It's not the kind of game that your child keeps asking for help in, since everything is perfectly designed for them (I do have to help my 15 month old, naturally). This is important, because you want to stimulate and encourage independant learning. The sounds and animations are fun and silly, not spastic and annoying, so playing along or just sitting together while your child plays independently does not become a test of patience for you, like so many other kids apps are. I like to sit with my kids while they play learning games, whether I'm playing/helping or just watching, so the fact that this one doesn't have the nails-on-chalkboard effect is not just a bonus, it's a blessing.

Overall, this is a magnificent app. Highly recommended.

This apps truly amazing. Funny animations including letter sounds, funny animated sequences when they finish with a word, and very well thought out. Even the letter sounds change depending on the word (eee as opposed to eh). Even the letters themselves are animated along with funny goofy sounds as the child moves it around. And after they spell the word and the animation clip plays out, the child can touch the screen and letters that are in the word fail like little raindrops starting from where they touch on the screen.

The words they use are also beyond kindergarten levels. Don't look for apple, boy, car words here. They start right out of the gate with harder words like vegetable, timid, quarrel, and gargantuan. but not to worry since a soothing female narrator explains what the word means once they're done spelling out the word which entails dragging letters onto letter outlines.

My ONLY pushback is that it does not cover lower case letters. The entire word is all upper case. It didn't even dawn on me until we started writing the letters on paper. That being said, this app is simply amazing. I have never seen an app that covers letters this thoroughly and in such an entertaining way. Don't hesitate. This is great for kids to learn letters. Even if they are only upper case. I can't take a star away for that oversight when everything else is so phenomenal.

Colorful, interactive, easy to navigate. Eye-catching graphics and ear-catching audio.

As an educator (10+years early elementary), I prefer the method that this app teaches the alphabet. While “learning the ABC’s” is also important, learning about letters at a young age within the context of actual words I think is terrific. Also, the chunks of time where the child can’t interact with the game are EXTREMELY short. So the quick “I’m bored now, clicking to something else” factor is lessened somewhat. Overall, extremely useful for kids any age that can effective interact with the iPad.

I note regarding a previous review complaining about the word difficulty. If you have a child in a pre-reading stage (let’s say 3 years old +) then something like “Endless Reader” would be more-appropriate AS A READING PREP. This game, while it’s packed with fairly complex words, is still really more of an alphabet-builder. That being said, a child just starting to read could very well come back to this game and really enhance their vocabulary going forward.

(Final note: For the record, I don’t know the developers of this game from a hole in the ground. I’m gushing about it because I have a 2-3 year old and have been through dozens of mostly-worthless “education” apps. Can’t speak about the prices versus the “going rate” for educational apps. I just know the learning component is worthwhile.)

We have had this app for about a week now. The app is not the standard alphabet that just repeats itself or anything like that. It has words for each letter of the alphabet that will appear on the screen, say the word, then scramble the letters on the screen and all that is left is the outlined word. The child is supposed to drag and drop each letter to its correct spot in the word. Once the letters are in the right spots and spell the word, the letters (animated characters as letters) cheer for your child then repeat the word. After it repeats the word there is an animated example of the word as well as the spoken simple definition. Also, when you touch each letter they make silly sounds that the letter makes.

At first when my son (21 months old) started playing with it he was not very good at it. He would get frustrated and ask for my help. At first I would arrange the letters to be pretty close to the correct spots they were supposed to be in and he would get it faster. Then I stopped and it challenged him to figure it out on his own. After three days loving and hating this app, my son has mastered it! He knows what letters are which, where they go, and even repeats many of the words!

UPDATE***

Constantly surprised. My son now 23 months, recognizes letters outside the app, knows its sound and can tell you every letter of the alphabet all because of this app and reinforcement on our part. I can't rave about this app enough.

The app is nice. The colors, sounds, animations, and ideas all are well executed. The problem is that the interface is not well executed for a young child.

Here are a few example issues:

- The tap targets on the letter are far too small and not integrated with drag actions. For example, if I try to tap the letter 'L' and miss the target by a bit, but then drag my finger towards the L, it does not register that as 'picking up' the letter. This is very frustrating for my daughter. Expected behavior: if a letter is not currently being dragged and the user drags their finger across one, it should register that as a 'pick up' and begin dragging it. This would improve usability for younger children by a lot.

- The 'error' beep and automatic movement of the letter that happens when it is dragged on top of the incorrect target is both frustrating and unnecessary. If a child is working to get a letter in place and the application automatically moves it away from where she put it, then it is undoing the work of the child and making it more difficult for her, unnecessarily.

- The really needs to be an option to obscure or change the actions require for clicking "next letter" or the "home" button. While trying to help my daughter learn to use the app, she frequently hit one of these buttons by mistake, causing the app to dismiss the work she had done. I suggest reconsidering how these buttons work.

Overall, I think that the UI needs some work. I doubt we will play much with the application again until the usability issues for children are addressed.

I own over a $1,000 in iOS Apps and I have probably only written a review on 2 apps out of all of them. This one I have to say is EXCELLENT...BUT - The only reason I put the "but" in there is because as parents we love the APP because of everything it offer's, but my 4year old son doesn't play it more than 3 words and moves on. What my son does play over and over is games that give him a feeling of accomplishment even if it's just STARS - (Great job 2 out of 3 stars!) Maybe add a clock so that they can earn so 3 Stars if done in under so much time? I Don't know if that's the answer, I'm not a education expert and that might cause them to solve each one so fast they're missing out on what it's teaching?
Your the developer - Talk to Children Education and Development specialists on how to introduce a competitiveness to the game even if they're only competing with themselves, it adds drive and gives them a feeling of accomplishment and success. As parents we know the real reward here is that they're learning the sounds of each letter in the alphabet, it's meaning and how to spell it at the same time while having fun!
I only let my son play with the iPad for a limited time each day and only when he's good in school and at home, so the iPad still holds a reward status and to keep educating is all the better!
Just so this isn't taken the wrong way, I don't think there will ever be anything more effective at teaching out children than the example we set as parents and the direct one on one time and attention between child and parent(person to person mainly).

Thanks again!
Looking forward to see what else you are capable of doing!
-Single Parent

I downloaded this app for our 3 year old a year or so ago. He loved it, but already knew his ABCs. (He much preferred endless reader when it came out, and is a very early reader himself.) But our 2nd child started with this app early, just after turning 2. Yesterday, probably after a grand total of 20-30 hours spread over a few months (road trips, airplanes, a quiet moment), our toddler woke up, looked at his alphabet quilt that hung on the wall, and began to, of his own accord, identify the letters and say the sounds. Tonight, we picked up his nightly book, and he read about 50% of the letters on the front cover. He is 2 years and 4 months old. I attribute this strong start to this outstanding app.

Now, to address the very few critics of the app, this is where engaged parenting becomes the partnership with such an amazing software app — yes, some of the sounds are a little off, and yes, our son thought the letter “T” was called “tuh tuh tuh tuh”, but with some immediate coaching and reinforcement, he is quickly switching to “T” and the sound is “tuh”. Yes, as he started with the app, we helped him a lithe to figure out what to do and let him know those were “letters”. And now that he sees these symbols mean something, we are picking up letters and pointing at them to ask him what they are called. We got out the letter blocks now that he realizes that letters mean something. And we will always continue to read. The app alone won’t do all this.

But I’ll be extraordinarily impressed if anyone can find another app anywhere, or tool for that matter, that engages the mind of a toddler in such a captivated way and generates such beneficial learning to the foundation of their future education. Parents, take it from there!

I’d give this 10 stars if I could.

I downloaded this about a week ago and within 24 hours it was my two-year old's favorite app. She asks to play with it almost daily. The adorable monster graphics are unique and fun. As a teacher, I love the letter recognition practice she is getting by putting together the scattered words. Even better, the letters are animated to make "their" sounds so it is giving her practice in phonics, too. (Warning: the letters don't always make their true sounds within the context of the word; like the silent E or letter blends. Vowels do change to sound short or long, and consonants with soft and hard sounds will adjust accordingly, but it's impossible for letters in isolation to always make the exact sound.) I often catch her making the sounds along with the letters... which she has started doing to letters she sees outside of this app. Although she is a little too young right now to benefit from it, the animated and spoken definitions are definitely a vocabulary building bonus. I like the concept of it being "endless" and new words being added. I would definitely pay for this app and I'm shocked it doesn't cost $2.99 yet! Grab it now while it's free, because I can't believe a great product like this will be free forever.

Suggestions for the developers: I would love to see a parent feature where we could see statistics on the frequency of word views. Also, although uppercase letters are a neat and consistent looking, it's important for pre-schoolers (and young grade schoolers) to recognize lower-case letters too. Maybe you could start incorporating lower-case letters into some of the words? Lastly, although the endless aspect is fabulous, I'm worried that too many words will make the app "bulky" to navigate and too large for my device. Have you considered putting a limit on the number of words per letter and perhaps rotating out or "retiring" words after a certain amount of time? Thanks for a great app!

My child knew his ABC's prior to using this APP. Once he started using this APP instead of saying "A" he started saying Aaaaaaaa. As when you are hold down a letter before putting it down it will stutter. This APP couldn't of been designed by anyone who's worked with the 2-4 year age group and has tried teaching ABC's. Imagine your child's teacher starting to reach this way. Aaaaaaaaaaa is for Apple. You would send the teacher to a mental asylum.

I teach kindergarten and have a son in kindergarten as well. I hoped this app would be great to use in my classroom, so I tried it out with my son. He enjoys playing it, however, I did hear some of the letters making the incorrect phonetic sound.
For example, R does not make /ar/ sound, it should make /er/ sound. X is supposed to make /ks/ and Q, /kw/. There were more incorrect letter sounds, but I did not listen to them all.

Please correct this!

My daughter loves this.

Fix the problem for 5 stars!

The problem:

The home button is too easy for a kid's little fingers to touch while holding the phone and spelling words. It ruins the flow each time. My daughter is old enough to repeat letters and words, and to drag the letters over and spell things, but she accidentally touches the home button all the time.

The wish:

More new words. The only thing ever in the 'New' section are ads for other of the developer's games.

I am a VoiceOver user. I cannot see but I have a son who is sighted. I really wanted to love this app, I’ve heard so many great things about it. I downloaded it hoping to help my son learn his alphabet. Unfortunately, the app is not accessible at all with VoiceOver. Please make it accessible so that parents, caregivers or anyone using assistive Technology could help their children learn. I would love to be able to set this app up or help my son if he needs anything, unfortunately I can’t. Money wasted.

For learning the alphabet letter and sounds, I’m shocked that all of the letters are capitalized! There should be lower-case letters incorporated into this app. Vocabulary is also limited to large words which makes no sense for a child learning the alphabet sounds. Very disappointed in this app, especially at the price point of $9. My kids do enjoy it and have fun moving the monster letters around, which helps them learn the letter sounds, so it’s not a completely loss, but this app is definitely over rated by all the great reviews

Soooooo many of the letter sounds are spoken incorrectly. My 7 year old knows that 'm' doesn't say "muh", that 'b' doesn't say "buh", 'L' doesn't say "la", and so on. He's the one who pointed out the errors!

The app is clever and cute, but the developers should probably have consulted with some educators and specialists in phonemic awareness before releasing this.

I really hope to see an update that fixes the pronunciation problems. Until then, I can't in good conscience recommend it to my friends who have children who are learning to read.

I read a lot of great reviews of this app so decided to download it for my daughter (almost 4). We have been trying to help prepare her to read during this time out of school. Unfortunately, I found this app to have unbelievable limitations. While the activity is great, there are only 70 words. My kid did all of them in 2 days and has no interest in repeating the same words (only 2-3 or fewer per letter of the alphabet). For the cost and great reviews, I was expecting something much more of this and wanted to save parents the money - this activity is just not at all in depth.

I don't understand why this app needs an internet connection to get past "g". That may not be an issue in the USA with a typical wifi connection, but it's a big deal where I live and pay by the MB. It would be nice to download the whole thing and be done. (I know it states this in the description, but it doesn't seem necessary to me.)
Aside from that major issue, this app has a pleasing design, but I don't understand all the five star reviews. It's quite simple and is basically the same thing over and over. I don't regret spending 99¢ on it, but would have been upset if I had bought it when it was more expensive.

DO NOT use this app if you want to avoid future learning to read problems! While this app is cute and fun, it does NOT teach correct articulation of the phonemes (sounds). As a special education teacher of 20 years, I can't tell you enough how difficult this is to correct once learned incorrectly. I contacted the company and offered to help put in the correct sounds and was told they weren't interested in accuracy of the phonemes, all they wanted was a fun game to teach letters and words and if I didn't like that, like the other speech language therapists and teachers that had contacted them, then not to use it. Very disappointed that they would knowingly cause children to develop reading difficulties! Please avoid the app at all cost!

This app is nice for teaching vocabulary, but otherwise I am not impressed. I do not like that all of the words are in capital letters. My child needs to learn her lowercase letter names and this app does not help with that. Plus when we read books, all of the words are lowercase so children should be seeing words in this way. I like that when the child touches the letter, it says it sound. However, this app will not teach your child how to read by using advanced phonics rules. It only teaches the most common letter sound which might not be the sound used in that particular word. For example, it makes the short a sound for the word ALARM when in that word the A does not say the short a sound. I will need to search elsewhere for an app that teaches lowercase letter names.

This is a really cool app. It's like a puzzle, but letters are pulled to their proper place in a word. My kid loves it.

BUT, it's an app about learning to read and identify the letters, but the letter sounds are not consistent. Some of the letters use the phonetic sound, others use the sound made by the name of the letter. If the app is focused on teaching letter identification, then the sound do the letters should be the letter name (as if singing the alphabet song). However, if the point of the app is to help teach kids to recognize letters and how to read them, then the phonetic sound should be made.

Better yet, the user should have the option of choosing whether s/he wants letter name or letter sound! That would make this app killer.

As is, it's just ok, and could actually harm a child's reading progress by mixing up letter sounds.

I can’t believe I just paid $9. There nothing to it besides letter recognition and sounds. Bummer.

This was a big hit and helped my first daughter Learn her letters! Now my second daughter can only lean A-G. Way to screw things us originators!

Too simple, yet too complicated vocabulary for a little one. It's only function - put letters in a word like a puzzle. Not impressed with vocabulary choices, especially 'belch'.

My 3 year old LOVES this game but the recent update ruined this app. It force closes before she can even play with it. Please fix the issues and I can go back to rating it 5 stars.

Every kindergarten class I have had in the last couple of years have loved this app. I would hear children making the sounds that the letters made when they were playing else where. When my new students opened the app this fall for the first time, the letters didn’t make the sounds any more, the narrator just says the name of the letter. My students were bored after the first two words. Please bring the sounds back. They were so much more meaningful and engaging for the children.