Talk: the guide for grown-ups

A free communication board for children who can't rely on speech. It works with no internet, it's the same every time it opens, and nothing about your child ever leaves the device.

This guide covers setting Talk up, the first week, and what to do if something goes wrong. Setting up takes about fifteen minutes. You don't need to read all of it first. Do before you start, then come back to the rest.

Who it's for

Children who can't yet say everything they want to with their voice, for any reason, including autistic children, children with apraxia of speech, and children whose speech is still coming. It's also for the grown-ups around them: parents, grandparents, teachers, aides and speech pathologists.

It is not a game. There are no points, prizes or sounds except words, and it never changes by itself. A child's words stay exactly where they are, so their hands can learn the way to each one.

Before you start (5 minutes)

1. Use an iPad or an Android tablet. A phone works too, with fewer words on the screen. On iPad use Safari; on Android use Chrome.
2. Open littleroos.com.au/talk with the internet on. A set-up card appears. Wait for Ready without internet to tick. It takes a few seconds.
3. Put it on the Home Screen. On iPad: tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. On Android: the menu (⋮), then Install app. From now on, always open Talk from its own icon. That gives it the whole screen, and stops the iPad clearing it to save space.
4. Keep your child in the board. On iPad, turn on Guided Access (Settings → Accessibility → Guided Access), then triple-click the side or home button while Talk is open. On Android, turn on screen pinning (search Settings for “pinning”).

Make it theirs (10 minutes)

Grown-up settings are behind the logo in the top corner. Hold it for three seconds, then answer the sum. That keeps curious fingers out, without a password to forget.

1. Board size. If you're not sure, start with 30 words. Choose more words than your child uses now, not fewer: there needs to be room to grow. If the board feels busy, hide words rather than choosing a smaller board (step 4).
2. Voice. Tap hear it on each and pick the one that suits your child. You can change it any time.
3. Photos. Tap Change the board, then tap a word. Photos of their own people, places and favourite things often work better than drawings: Mum, the dog, Nan's house, their cup.
4. Hide what isn't needed yet. In the same place, tick Hide it for now. The space stays empty so nothing else moves, and you can show the word again later.
5. Record a voice for a word or two, such as a sibling saying their own name.
6. Add a word that's missing: open a topic and tap add a word. Talk makes its voice on the device. The first time, it downloads the voice maker (about 100 MB, once), so do this on Wi-Fi.
7. Save a backup (Save a backup in the grown-up drawer), and keep the file somewhere safe.

How the board works

• Words that are used all the time (I, want, more, go, help, not…) fill the left. They never move, at any board size.
• Topics sit on the right: Food, Drinks, People, Places… Opening one changes only that part of the board. back returns to the topics.
• The quick row along the bottom is always there: yes, no, stop, help, break, finished, hurts. It's for moments when there's no time to build a sentence.
• The message at the top collects the words tapped, as pictures. speak says it all, delete takes off the last word and clear starts again. Tapping the message also says it.
• show (turn it on under Seeing) fills the screen with the message, big, for a noisy shop or to hand the iPad to someone. turn around flips it for the person opposite.

The board is coloured by the kind of word, the colours speech pathologists use (the Fitzgerald Key): yellow for people, green for actions, blue for describing words, orange for things, pink for social words, red for “no” and urgent words.

The first week: show, don't test

Children learn a board the way they learn to talk: by seeing and hearing it used around them, many times, long before they use it themselves. Speech pathologists call this modelling.

• Use it yourself when you talk to your child. Say “Let's go outside” and tap go and outside as you say them. One or two words is plenty.
• Don't quiz. Skip “Show me where apple is”. Just use the words in real moments: snack time, the car, the bath.
• Every tap counts as talking. If your child taps stop in the middle of something fun, stop, then check. Exploring and babbling on the board is how it's learnt.
• Keep it within reach, all day. A voice that lives in a drawer isn't a voice. Never take it away as a consequence.
• Not sure where a word is? In the grown-up drawer, Show me where a word is puts a dark ring on the next thing to tap, including the topic to open first. You can pick a few words to model a sentence.

Expect weeks, not days. Many children watch for a long time before they tap.

If tapping is hard

All of these are in the grown-up drawer, and all of them start switched off.

• A tap counts: after a hold. For a child who drags a hand or rests it on the screen. Only a finger that stays on one word counts.
• Ignore repeat taps. For a tremor or excited double-taps.
• Switch scanning. For one or two switches. Any Bluetooth switch that types Space or Enter works. Talk does its own scanning, so leave the iPad's Switch Control off.
• Keyboard page. For children who can spell. Typed words go into the message and are said aloud.
• Picture size, word size, high contrast, low stimulation, dark. For children who see differently or are easily overwhelmed.
• Keyguard template. A to-scale page showing where every hole goes, to take to a keyguard maker.

Keeping it safe

• Save a backup after you change the board, and every month or so. It's one file with the board, its photos and recordings. It can be opened on another iPad, and other communication apps can read it. The grown-up drawer reminds you if your changes aren't backed up.
• Print the paper board and keep it in the bag: for the pool, the beach and flat batteries. Hidden words are left blank, so it matches the screen.
• Updates never interrupt. A new version is saved quietly and starts next time Talk opens. The board never changes while your child is using it.
• More than one child? Add another child gives each one their own board on the same iPad.

Private by design

There's no account and no sign-up. Photos, recordings, the words you add and everything your child says stay on the device. The microphone is used only while a grown-up records a word. New words are voiced on the device itself, so what you type is never sent anywhere. The privacy page has the details.

If something goes wrong

• A word is silent or wrong: open it in Change the board, tap Hear it, and record your own voice if it still isn't right.
• The board didn't open offline: open it once with the internet on and wait for Works without internet in the grown-up drawer, under This device.
• Anything else: in the grown-up drawer, tap Copy details for a problem report. It copies the version, device and settings, never your child's words or photos. Paste it into a message to whoever helps you with Talk, such as your speech pathologist, and tell us what happened.

Questions families ask

Will using a board stop my child learning to talk? Research on communication aids consistently finds that they don't hold back speech, and they often help it along. Children use whatever way of communicating works best at the moment. Your speech pathologist can talk this through with you.

Is it really free? Yes. No ads, no paid version, nothing to unlock.

Where do the pictures and voices come from? The pictures are Mulberry Symbols by Steve Lee, with some drawn by Little Roos. The voices are made with Kokoro, an open-source voice model, ahead of time for the built-in words and on the device for the words you add.

Can our speech pathologist set it up? Yes, and they're very welcome to. A backup file lets them set up a board on their device and send it to you.