How to use the Talk board

The Talk board gives your child a voice. Each picture says its word out loud when it's tapped, using your tablet's own voice.

A board that never moves

The board is a fixed grid of 8 columns and 5 rows, made for a tablet held sideways. Every button keeps the same spot. Your child learns where a word lives, the way you learn where a light switch is, and reaches it faster each time. When a new stage turns on, new buttons appear in empty spots, and the old ones stay where they were.

Stages

Words come in stages, so the board grows with your child:

1. Core needs: words for eating, drinking, the bathroom, help, a break and all done.
2. Feelings: happy, sad, mad, scared, tired and hurt.
3. Wants and activities: buttons that open pages of food, toys, outside and music words.
4. Two-word phrases: "I want" plus a thing, "I feel" plus a face, built in a sentence strip.

You turn stages on in the parent portal, in the Talk board view. Start with stage 1, and add the next when your child is reaching for more. Later stages are on the way.

Building a sentence

Once stage 4 is on, each word your child taps also lands in the sentence strip at the top of the board. Tap "I," then "want," then "cookie," and the strip shows all three. Tap the strip to hear the whole sentence. The clear button empties it for the next one.

Tips

• Show how it works. During the day, tap words yourself while you say them: "want... juice." Your child sees the board in action without being asked to perform.
• Keep it close. The board helps most when it's always within reach: at meals, in the car and at the park.
• Answer every tap. If your child taps a word, respond to it, even when it isn't the word you expected. Exploring the board is how children learn where words are.
• Go slowly with new stages. A few familiar buttons beat a full board your child hasn't learned yet.

Sound

Words play only after a tap. You can change the voice, or turn speaking off, in Settings in the parent portal.