TalkPad AAC vs Malachi Speaks

TalkPad is a simple, affordable AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) app designed for children who are nonverbal or have limited speech. No therapist required. No subscription. Just tap, communicate, connect. Built by a parent, for parents. Your child can start communicating in under 60 seconds with TalkPad's intuitive card-based system. Tap a card to speak. Build sentences. Track progress. It's that simple. 129 COMMUNICATION CARDS across 9 categories: • Feelings — Happy, Sad, Angry, Scared, and more • Needs — Help, Bathroom, Water, Hug, Break • Actions — Play, Eat, Read, Go, Watch • Social — Hello, Goodbye, Thank You, Please • Food & Drink — Water, Juice, Pizza, Fruit, Snacks • Body & Senses — Too Loud, Stomach Hurts, Need Space • Routine — Wake Up, Brush Teeth, School, Bath • People — Mom, Dad, Teacher, Friend • Places — Home, School, Park, Store FEATURES PARENTS LOVE: • Quick Words bar — "More", "All Done", "Stop", "Yes", "No" always visible • Build Mode — silently build full sentences, then speak them all at once • Calm Down tool — guided breathing animation for overwhelm moments • Visual Schedule — plan the day with morning, afternoon, and evening sections • Progress Dashboard — track communication patterns and daily streaks • Shareable Progress Reports — send reports to therapists, teachers, or family • Free-type keyboard with saved phrases • Custom cards — add your own photos and words • Multiple grid sizes (2x2, 3x3, 4x4) for different ability levels • Haptic feedback for sensory reinforcement • PIN-protected parent settings PRIVACY FIRST: • Zero data collection • No accounts or logins • No ads, ever • All data stays on your device • COPPA compliant Most AAC apps cost $150–$300. TalkPad gives your child a voice for $9.99. One-time purchase. No subscriptions. No hidden fees. Every child deserves to communicate — price shouldn't be the barrier.

Malachi Speaks gives a voice to people who don't use speech. Tap a picture to say a word. Chain pictures into a sentence and speak it all at once. Or type on a keyboard that speaks. Three ways in, so the app fits the person rather than the other way round — and keeps fitting as they grow. It is completely free. No subscription, no paid tier, no ads, and no account to create. Nothing you set up leaves the device. WHY THIS EXISTS I built this for my brother Malachi, who is nonverbal and autistic. Every feature is here because he needed it that week, not because a roadmap said so. Most capable AAC apps cost $200–300, which asks a family to choose between capable and affordable. This is my attempt at neither. THE BOARD • Tap a tile to speak. Categories keep words findable as the board grows. • Sentence Builder: collect tiles into a strip and speak the whole phrase, with next-word suggestions learned from the words this board actually uses. • Quick Actions row and a Recently Used tab for the words that come up constantly. • Search the board by word when it outgrows one screen. A REAL VOICE, NOT JUST A SYNTHETIC ONE Record a parent saying "Mom", a sibling's name, or any word the built-in voice gets wrong. The recording plays instead of the synthetic voice — on its own and inside a built sentence. Recordings never leave the device. TYPE TO SPEAK For anyone who can spell what they want to say: a keyboard that speaks in the same voice as the board, with saved phrases one tap away and matching phrases surfacing as you type. Put a message on the whole screen in big text for a noisy room or a drive-through window. It can replace the picture board entirely for that profile. PICTURES Search dozens of free symbol libraries at once, or download every ARASAAC picture symbol once — 13,000 of them — and search with no internet at all, in English or Spanish. Use your own photos too. ENGLISH AND SPANISH A Spanish starter board, a Spanish voice, and picture search in Spanish — not an English board to translate by hand. The caregiver screens are translated too, and on a Spanish device the app comes up in Spanish on its own. One device can hold both. FOR CAREGIVERS, THERAPISTS AND TEACHERS • An optional PIN keeps Edit Board and Settings out of everyday use. • Profiles: one device can hold a separate board, voice and usage log for each student, kept entirely apart. • Word usage reports with 7- and 30-day trends, the tiles never tapped, and a CSV export for school paperwork. • Print the board to paper, laid out to match the screen, for a pool or a bath. • Backups, and Open Board Format (.obz) import and export, so your board is not trapped here. PRIVACY There are no accounts, no servers and no analytics. Usage counts and word suggestions are computed on the device from real taps and never sent anywhere. The only network use is optional: searching online symbol libraries, and the one-time symbol download. Picture symbols by ARASAAC (arasaac.org), author Sergio Palao, owned by the Government of Aragón (Spain), licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Suggestions are welcome: hbarnett@malachispeaks.com