Talking Cards: Learn to Talk — picture cards that speak, for children

Try a tiny board — right here

Thirty of the app’s 1,700+ words. Tap a card, hear the word and see it big — that is how the app opens, as a learning board you use together. Then switch to Build a sentence: tap Want then Water and the cards become a sentence. Each card speaks with the app’s own narrated voice, and the play button reads the finished sentence with your browser’s voice, the same way the app uses your device’s voice.

Try one:

A small taste of the board. Inside the app it works even better — the whole sentence is spoken aloud in one voice, and the board suggests the next word as you tap.

Let’s Talk — answer, and hear a reply

A buddy asks a question, the child answers by tapping a picture, and the buddy answers back — then asks the next question, built on what the child said. Every line is written by people, not generated by AI, and every sentence comes from the same grammar engine as the board. 31 subjects in each language — everyday chats, stories, a counting round and a letter round — each written in that language rather than translated: an Arabic child is asked about manakish, a Turkish child about simit.

What shall we talk about?

💬 Let’s Talk

A real conversation from the app, word for word. The cards speak with the app’s narrated voice; the buddy uses your browser’s voice, the way the app uses your device’s voice. Inside the app it works even better — every card a child picks gets its own reply.

Arabic has 29 subjects and no letter round — Arabic letters change shape by position, so it gets the counting round instead. Nepali also has 29, with the counting round and no letter round.

Let’s Talk is free for every family on every store. Little Bear’s Big Week is one story in three chapters, told one a day: chapter 1 is free, and chapters 2 and 3 open with the full app or a free window.

The Let’s Talk screen in the app: a bear asks “What food do you like?”, the child answers “I like apples.”, the bear replies “Yum! You like apples.” and asks “When do you eat apples?”, with six picture cards to answer with. — In the app: the question, the child’s answer, the buddy’s reply and the next set of answer cards.

See it working

Filmed on iPad in August 2026 — before the 2.24 redesign, so the board it shows opens differently today. The app is on the App Store, Google Play and the Amazon Appstore.

Type to Talk — a keyboard that reads aloud

A full-screen keyboard with big letter keys: the child types, and the app reads it aloud. When a typed word matches one of the child’s cards, that card lights up and plays its word, and Hear it as a sentence runs the cards through the same grammar as the talking board. Every key is narrated, and so is each word that matches a card; whole sentences, and typed words that match no card, are spoken by the device’s own voice.

Recorded on iPad from version 2.28.0, with no voice-over. The keys and card words are the app’s narrated clips; the sentences use the device’s voice — a Mac voice stands in for the iPad’s in this recording.

Spell it — the keys light up in order, with three levels of help: Watch, Hint, and On my own.
Letter hunt — hear a letter, then find its key.
Copy the line — type a line made of the child’s own cards.
Number keys — the 123 keyboard.

It is in all six languages, each with its own keyboard — Arabic and Nepali Devanagari included — and it is free for everyone: the ⌨️ Type button sits in the board’s header.

Say It — see how a word is made

On an English board, Say It shows how a word is made: a friendly animated face — a kid or a bear — makes the mouth shapes one beat at a time, and the app says each beat and then the whole word. The child watches, listens, and then has a turn. There are 226 English words in seven levels, from lip sounds like m, b and p up to tricky ones like r and th, plus word sets from five of the storybooks.

Recorded on iPad from version 2.28.0. No voice-over: every sound is the app’s own — each beat, the word, “Your turn!” and a word of praise.

Nothing listens. There is no microphone. The child’s turn is a tap on a ring, and nothing they say is heard, scored or corrected.
English only. The Say It tile appears on an English board.
Picks up where you left off. Say It marks the words already seen, and a swipe moves on to the next one.
Practice and play, not therapy. It makes no promise about speech and sits alongside a child’s own talking, like everything else in the app.
Where to find it: the Learning page, which is part of the full app and open during the free windows.

What the video shows, step by step

From the board, open Learning, then tap Say It (English). The seven levels run from the lips to tricky sounds. Pick a word, tap Go!, watch the mouth, then listen — “bib”, then “Your turn!” and “You gave it a try!”. More words follow: “egg”, “nest”, then “milk” in the Mouth view, a close-up of the lips and tongue. Long words go beat by beat — “tuh, may, toe… tomato” — and Next moves on to “elephant”: “el, luh, funt… elephant”. A child who is done early taps the ring.

What it does

It opens as a learning board: 1,700+ picture cards in 69 categories, and tapping one speaks the word and holds the picture up big. When a child is ready to put words together, a grown-up switches on the talking board in the parent panel — then tapping cards fills a sentence bar, the app works out the grammar and speaks the finished sentence aloud, with Yes, No, Help and the emergency board always in reach. Card audio is narrated, not a recording of a person — except in Family Voices, where a parent can record a family member saying a word so that card speaks in a familiar voice.

Suggested words. After each tap the app offers words that plausibly come next, so a child building “I want…” is shown “drink”, “thirsty”, and so on.
Yes, No and Help sit in a fixed row that never moves, so they can be found without reading or searching.
An emergency board behind the red SOS button holds twelve short phrases — “I need help”, “I am hurt”, “I cannot breathe”, “Where is my family?”
Errorless games. A wrong tap is never marked wrong, there is no score to lose and no failure state. 15 games in all, among them Bottle Worlds — 19 calm little worlds in a glass, with hidden letters and numbers to find — plus Zippy and Beat Maker.
Ready-made routines and a story shelf. Four routines come ready to use — Get dressed, Brush teeth, Wash hands and Bedtime — and the story shelf shows which books are new, which are read, and where you left off.
Two languages, ten words a day. In Two languages, Today gives 10 words to learn each day, a New view shows the cards not heard yet, and a count keeps track of the words heard so far. A slide show plays the cards one by one in Alphabet and Two languages, saying each word 1 to 4 times.
My World, grouped by activity. 45 picture scenes to tap and explore, grouped by activity, with recent scenes first.
Custom cards. A parent can add a photo from the device to make a card for a specific person, toy or place.

A tour of the app

Build a sentence. With the talking board switched on, taps fill the sentence bar and the app speaks it.
Tap a card, hear the word. The picture is held up big — this is how the app opens.
You choose which app it is. Learning board or talking board, and a grown-up can switch any time.
Now and next. A visual routine that shows what is happening and what follows.
The emergency board. One tap on SOS, from anywhere in the app.
Right-to-left Arabic. The whole interface mirrors — not just the words.
The Quiet place. Name the feeling, then something calm to do with your hands. New in 2.24.
15 games, on three shelves. Play, Think, and Music & calm. Errorless by design — nothing is marked wrong, the round simply carries on.
Two languages, ten words a day. Today’s words, a New view for cards not heard yet, and a count of the words heard so far.
A slide show of cards. In Alphabet and Two languages, each word is said 1 to 4 times, then the next.
Bottle Worlds. 19 calm little worlds in a glass, with hidden letters and numbers to find.

And room to breathe on a tablet

The whole board at once. On a bigger screen far more cards share one view — less scrolling for small hands.
The grown-ups’ panel. This is where the talking board is switched on, one piece at a time — and where languages, vocabulary level and card size live. Levels only hide cards, so positions never change and little fingers keep their memory.

The cards themselves

All 1,700+ picture words are illustrated in the same warm storybook style, so the board feels like one book rather than a sticker box. Here are thirty of them.

The Lion picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated lion in the app’s warm storybook style. — Lion

The Elephant picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated elephant in the app’s warm storybook style. — Elephant

The Giraffe picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated giraffe in the app’s warm storybook style. — Giraffe

The Panda picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated panda in the app’s warm storybook style. — Panda

The Owl picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated owl in the app’s warm storybook style. — Owl

The Peacock picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated peacock in the app’s warm storybook style. — Peacock

The Dolphin picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated dolphin in the app’s warm storybook style. — Dolphin

The Turtle picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated turtle in the app’s warm storybook style. — Turtle

The Dinosaur picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated dinosaur in the app’s warm storybook style. — Dinosaur

The Rainbow picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated rainbow in the app’s warm storybook style. — Rainbow

The Sun picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated sun in the app’s warm storybook style. — Sun

The Moon picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated moon in the app’s warm storybook style. — Moon

The Star picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated star in the app’s warm storybook style. — Star

The Rain picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated rain in the app’s warm storybook style. — Rain

The Snowman picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated snowman in the app’s warm storybook style. — Snowman

The Birthday Cake picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated birthday cake in the app’s warm storybook style. — Birthday Cake

The Ice Cream picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated ice cream in the app’s warm storybook style. — Ice Cream

The Strawberry picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated strawberry in the app’s warm storybook style. — Strawberry

The Watermelon picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated watermelon in the app’s warm storybook style. — Watermelon

The Doctor picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated doctor in the app’s warm storybook style. — Doctor

The Teacher picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated teacher in the app’s warm storybook style. — Teacher

The Firefighter picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated firefighter in the app’s warm storybook style. — Firefighter

The Astronaut picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated astronaut in the app’s warm storybook style. — Astronaut

The Robot picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated robot in the app’s warm storybook style. — Robot

The Dragon picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated dragon in the app’s warm storybook style. — Dragon

The Rocket picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated rocket in the app’s warm storybook style. — Rocket

The Train picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated train in the app’s warm storybook style. — Train

The Fire Truck picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated fire truck in the app’s warm storybook style. — Fire Truck

The Drum picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated drum in the app’s warm storybook style. — Drum

The Swing picture card from Talking Cards, an illustrated swing in the app’s warm storybook style. — Swing

Six languages, each with its own grammar

English, Arabic, Spanish, French and Turkish — and now Nepali, the sixth. Each language has its own grammar engine rather than a translated word list, so the sentence a child builds comes out correctly formed in that language. Arabic mirrors the entire interface right-to-left, including the category strip and the sentence bar. The Nepali edition was prepared with native speakers: every card is narrated, and because iPhones and iPads have no Nepali system voice, the app carries its own recordings of the fixed lines so they still speak there. Let’s Talk is written in each language rather than translated.

What is free, and what the one-time purchase adds

There is no subscription. The app is free to download and useful without paying; one optional one-time purchase opens the rest of it permanently.

Free	Full unlock (one-time)
194 core picture words The emergency board Family Voices Let’s Talk Type to Talk The gallery, favorites and history Stickers	All 1,700+ picture words across 69 categories 73 illustrated storybooks 15 games Custom photo cards Routines 45 My World scenes Say It (English)

The full unlock is a one-time purchase on the App Store, Google Play or the Amazon Appstore. There are no other purchases, no advertising and no subscription. Your store shows the price for your country.

Download on the App Store Get it on Google Play Amazon Appstore

Try everything first. The first launch opens the whole app for 30 minutes. After that a grown-up can open it again — for 15 free minutes every day, for good, and for a free week, three times over — from behind the parent gate. A child opening the app alone stays on the starter cards.

For speech-language pathologists, schools and districts

Talking Cards makes no clinical claim. It does not treat, cure or diagnose anything, and it is not therapy — it is a picture board that speaks, intended for use alongside a child’s own speech.

Data collection	None. See the Privacy Policy.
Accounts	Not required. There is no sign-in.
Advertising and analytics	None. The only outside code in the app is the app store’s own purchase system.
Network use	The board works offline. On iPhone and iPad the app itself makes no network requests — purchases go through the App Store. On Android and Fire tablets the internet is used only to complete a purchase or redeem an unlock code.
Data for goal-setting	The Activity screen ranks the words a child actually uses over a chosen period and exports CSV. It stays on the device.
Permissions	Microphone and photo library, each only on an explicit action.
Bulk or classroom licensing	Email us. For Android and Fire tablets we issue unlock codes to educators and therapists on request.

Full detail, including how to reach the grown-ups’ area and how to improve the device voice, is on the support page.

Privacy

Talking Cards collects no data about your child. No accounts, no ads, no analytics, no tracking. Recordings and photos stay in the app’s private storage on the device. The board works offline: on iPhone and iPad the app itself makes no network requests, and on Android and Fire tablets the internet is used only to complete a purchase or to redeem an unlock code.

The full statement is here: Privacy Policy.

How-to guides

Step-by-step guides with screenshots from the app: setting up, the talking board, Family Voices, the Quiet place and more.

All 14 guides →

Common questions

Is Talking Cards free?

Yes. The app is free to download and includes 194 core picture words, the emergency board, Family Voices, Let’s Talk and Type to Talk. One optional one-time purchase on the App Store, Google Play or the Amazon Appstore opens the full vocabulary, the storybooks, the games, custom photo cards, routines and My World. There is no subscription. Before buying, a grown-up can open everything for a free week — three times over — and for 15 free minutes every day, from the parent gate.

Who is it for?

Children who find words hard — including children with speech delays, autistic children, and children who are nonspeaking. It is used alongside a child’s own talking, to support their speech rather than replace it.

Does it work offline?

Yes, for everyday use. Building and speaking sentences works with no connection. On iPhone and iPad the app itself makes no network requests — purchases go through the App Store. On Android and Fire tablets the internet is used only to complete a purchase or to redeem an unlock code.

Which languages does it support?

English, Arabic, Spanish, French and Turkish, and now Nepali as a sixth. Each has its own grammar engine, and Arabic mirrors the whole interface right-to-left.

Does the app collect any data about my child?

No. There are no accounts, no analytics, no advertising, and the only outside code is the app store’s own purchase system. Recordings and photos stay in the app’s private storage on the device.

Can a card speak in a family member’s voice?

Yes. In Family Voices a parent records a family member saying a word, and that card then speaks in that voice instead of the built-in one. Those recordings stay on the device.

Does Say It listen to my child?

No. Say It has no microphone and nothing listens: the child’s turn is a tap on a ring, and nothing they say is heard, scored or corrected. It shows how a word is made — the mouth shapes and the sounds — for the child to watch, listen and try. It is in English only.

Which devices does it work on?

iPhone and iPad (iOS 15 or later) through the App Store, Android phones and tablets through Google Play, and Amazon Fire tablets through the Amazon Appstore.

How do I get a classroom or clinic license?

Email support@plapl.app. For Android and Fire tablets we issue unlock codes to educators and therapists on request.