Pip
Modeling AAC at home

Show them how. Don't take it from them.

Every speech therapist says model, model, model. Nobody tells you what to do when your child pulls the iPad away the second you reach for it.

See how it works

The advice is right. The reaching over is the hard part.

Kids learn to talk by hearing talk all around them. A child learning AAC learns the board the same way: by watching people use it, all day, for real things.

But the iPad is theirs. Lean in and press a button, and a lot of kids grab it back, or wander off, or the moment is gone. So most of us end up modeling less than we mean to.

Pip moves the modeling to your phone. You tap the word there, and it lights up on theirs.

One evening

Tuesday, at dinner.

  1. You open Spotlight on your phone. Snack time is one of the suggested lists: eat, drink, more, all done, open. One tap adds it, one tap starts it.

  2. Theo's iPad leans against his plate. His board looks the way it always does. Your phone stays in your hand.

  3. The crackers run out. You don't say "use your words." You tap more on your phone, and across the table, more lights up on his iPad.

  4. He looks at it. He presses it. Pip says "more." A little 1 appears next to more on your phone.

Nothing on his board was turned off. He could have said anything. You just showed him where more lives, without touching his iPad.

Try it. You're the parent: tap more on your phone.

Your phone
🔦 Snack time
Theo's iPad
Theo's words show here
A picture of the app, with Pip's real voice. Turn your sound on.

Why it's built this way.

It invites. It never takes over.

The light fades after a few seconds, or the moment your child presses the word. Nothing on their board is turned off, hidden, or moved. They can still say anything.

The tip shows up right when you need it.

After you light a word, your phone shows one short idea for using it. Your speech therapist can write their own tip for each word.

Only their taps count.

Your taps light words; they never count as your child's. Progress shows each word said on their own apart from words said right after you lit them.

Spotlight and modeling from one helper's phone are free. The full progress dashboard comes with Pip Lifetime, $49 once.

For speech therapists

Homework a parent can actually do.

"Model at home" is the hardest thing we ask of families. Pick this week's words in Spotlight and write a one-line tip for each. The family's phone shows your tip the moment they light that word, at the dinner table, not in a handout on the fridge.

How Pip works for SLPs →

Try one word tonight.

All you need is the iPad you have and your phone. No second device? Start Spotlight on the iPad: the words glow, and you point.

Create your child's board — free

No download · Spotlight is free · Never a subscription