Who makes BublTalk, and why

BublTalk is an AAC app for toddlers who aren't talking yet. It exists because a parent went looking for one, couldn't find one that fit a three-year-old, and built it.

It started with a child who went quiet

My youngest had a few early words, and then they went away. He stopped talking. We did what most families do: we tried everything we were offered. Speech therapy, occupational therapy, different programmes, different approaches. Communication didn't come back.

When a speech therapist suggested AAC, I was against it. I was afraid that handing a child a device that talks for them would quietly end their reason to talk themselves. That fear turned out to be the most-studied question in the field, and the research answers it clearly. I wrote up what I found in Does AAC delay speech?

Then it became a problem I couldn't solve with what existed

The AAC apps we tried were built for older children and for classrooms. A screen with hundreds of small symbols was too much for a three-year-old, and honestly too much for me. Nothing I found was designed for the youngest end of the age range, where a child needs a handful of words rather than a full language system.

So I read, went to AAC expos, and talked with practising speech-language pathologists, clinicians and clinic directors about what actually works for toddlers specifically. Four to five SLPs shaped what the app became. Three ideas came back consistently, and they are the whole design:

• Use what therapists already trust. Baby sign language and PECS-style picture cards, in one place, rather than a new method invented from scratch.
• Make it feel familiar to the child. Toddlers already navigate video apps with a thumb. A communication tool shouldn't feel harder than the apps they already use.
• Let families build it around their own child. Cards made from real photos of their own people and things, not stock symbols.

What we are honest about

BublTalk is an on-ramp, not a full language system. It is built for the youngest children and the earliest stage, when a big grid is overwhelming. Children grow, and many will move on to robust AAC systems developed and maintained by teams of clinicians. That is a good outcome, not a lost customer.

We were shaped in consultation with SLPs. We are not an SLP-developed clinical product, we don't claim clinical validation, and nothing on this site is medical advice. Your child's speech-language pathologist knows your child. We don't.

How we make money, and who we try to reach anyway

BublTalk is a subscription: free for 14 days, then $9 a month or $90 a year through the App Store. It is priced deliberately below the established AAC apps, several of which cost upwards of $200 as a one-time purchase.

Money still stops families, so there is a scholarship for anyone who asks, and families in Florida can often be reimbursed through Step Up For Students. We would rather a child communicate than a family pay us.