Spelling ButterflyApp iPhone / iPad

App for children to learn how to spell by typing 3-letter words and receiving fun feedback. Guided learning through English phonetics.

Free Download from the Apple Store

Features

Vocabulary list with hundreds of 3-letter words.
Answers pop-up with cute illustrations and sounds.
For example, if you type “ANT”, it responds with “Oh no, ants are stealing my cookies!”
Game mode with phonetic sound hints.
Compatible with both iPads and iPhones.
The free trial version shows twenty default words. More details.

Answer Check

Kids try to type 3-letter words. If the word exists, a fun illustration and sound popup appears.
The answer recognition is based on a child-friendly 400+ 3-letter word list.
There are unique illustrations and sounds for one hundred familiar 3-letter words.

Vocabulary Exploration

Swipe the vocabulary area in the middle of the screen for kids to discover and learn how to spell new words.
Words appears in alphabetic order, just like a dictionary.
With full version, you can hide words in the vocabulary section for more challenging learning.

Word Game

In game mode, you will be asked to spell a randomly chosen 3-letter word.
If you are not sure what letter should come next, press the hint button to listen to the sound of the next letter to come.
Try to get as many words in a row as you can!

Free Version

The free trial version shows twenty default words. The remaining words are locked.
Game mode in the free version will only allow you to practice with 5 words. After purchasing, there will be no limit.
In order to activate all one hundred 3-letter words, please purchase the app though the purchase button in the app.

Why We Made This App

Our son had a toy keypad which recognized about twenty 3-letter words and played an audio clip when recognized words were typed. It came with a picture book to show these 3-letter words as well. He loved it and quickly learned how to type those words. The problem was that he started to type words which the toy didn’t recognize, even though some of those words were in the book.

Me and my husband wanted to encourage his passion for spelling. We looked everywhere for apps or toys that did similar things, but we were not able to find anything. The closest thing we found was a toy from the 70’s called “Speak N Spell”, but it was no longer made.

So I decided to make my own app. I first found a database of existing 3-letter words, and then chose one hundred that were kid-friendly, drew pictures and asked my husband to record narrative for each.

It was a great experience creating this app, and I’m very happy to say my son loves it. Especially funny words like pee and poo! I’m hoping that other kids will enjoy this app as much as he does.