Every child has something to say.
Cottontail is a picture-based communication app for non-verbal and minimally verbal children. Tap a card, and it speaks. Build a sentence, and it grows with them.
Launching soon · Free to download · iOS and Android · Phones and tablets
Built by a dad, for his daughter.
Our daughter is autistic and non-verbal. Like so many families, we tried the communication tools that existed and kept running into the same walls: apps that were rigid where she needed flexibility, cluttered where she needed clarity, or priced like enterprise software.
So we built Cottontail — shaped by observing what actually worked for our daughter, informed by experience working inside a school district, and refined with ongoing input from her speech therapist. Every design decision came from a real kid's daily life.
Underneath the soft colors sits real AAC practice: the Fitzgerald Key color-coding SLPs use to organize parts of speech, a core-word sentence bar for chaining thoughts into real words, whole-phrase boards that support gestalt language learners, a fixed no-scroll grid toggle that builds motor planning, morphology support (long-press "run" for "ran, running"), and fringe vocabulary organized in labeled topic folders. Everything is editable, because no two children need the same words.
It gave our daughter a way to be heard. We hope it does the same for your family.
— The Cottontail family
Thoughtfully made. Simply priced.
Your board, your rules
Grid size, voice pitch and speed, which tabs show up, whether cards stay put or flow to fill space, whether long-press grammar help is on — Cottontail has a setting for almost everything, so the app adapts to your child instead of the other way around.
Made to be personalized
Rename any card, swap in your own photos, hide what isn't needed, and add what is. A card can even show one word but speak a whole sentence — "Grandma" can say "I want to go to Grandma's house." Your child's board reflects your child's world.
One purchase, yours for life
The communication board and Pain Map are free — permanently. A single $29.99 purchase unlocks everything else for one child. SLPs and schools managing more than one child get Pro and School plans — also one-time purchases, never a subscription. No ads, no upsells, ever.
Six tools for one voice
Every screenshot below is the real app. And the first time you open it, BunBun walks you through every tab.
Grid
The home board — a full set of words, color-coded and organized in folders. Tap words to build a sentence in the bar, then press play to speak the whole thing.
Quick
Everyday go-to phrases, spoken the moment they're tapped — plus the full Words & Phrases library, organized into folders like Feelings, Mealtime, School, and Safety.
Keyboard
Type anything at all and Cottontail speaks it — perfect for words that aren't on a card yet. Recent phrases are saved for easy reuse.
Pain Map
A simple body outline, front and back. Your child taps where it hurts, and Cottontail says it out loud — no words required.
Calm
A dedicated space for regulation: guided breathing, a counting activity, a bubble-popping fidget, a drawing and coloring studio, four licensed sing-along songs with matching picture cards, and a calm-video player already stocked with soothing clips we've chosen — add your own YouTube favorites too, and nothing else on YouTube is ever reachable from inside the app.
Mine
Your child's favorites, gathered on one board. Star any card to keep it here, drag to arrange, and create custom cards with their own photos — including a My Scripts folder for the exact phrases your child uses.
Smart underneath the simplicity
A few of the things happening behind every tab.
Search everything, instantly
Tap the magnifier from Grid or Quick to search every card in the app — vocabulary, phrases, favorites, and anything custom you've added. Every result has a star button, so you can add it straight to Mine.
Long-press for word families
Long-press any word and its whole family pops up instantly — pronoun forms, verb tenses, plurals, even everyday slang synonyms — so the board never needs five versions of the same idea cluttering things up. Tap a form to add it to the sentence and hear it spoken right away.
Edit, hide, or favorite any card
Tap the pencil to enter edit mode: rename a card, swap its picture, hide it with one tap of the eye icon, or star it to send it straight to Mine. Nothing is ever deleted for good — hidden cards can always come back.
You stay in control of the details
Cottontail is simple for a child to use because caregivers can shape everything behind the scenes.
- Adjustable voice — pitch, speed, and voice presets
- Static or dynamic layouts — keep every card in a fixed spot to build motor memory, or let cards reflow as you customize
- "Stay in folder" mode keeps the board from resetting mid-thought — ideal for modeling multi-word phrases alongside your child
- Show or hide any card, folder, or entire tab
- Custom cards with your own photos, emoji, or drawings
- Calm Videos comes stocked with soothing clips already — or add your own YouTube favorites by link. Only approved clips can ever play, and the app never opens YouTube itself
Built for a caseload, not just one child
Pro and School accounts add a private Caregiver Dashboard, so one login can manage a whole roster instead of one device at a time.
- Manage up to 10 child profiles (Pro) or 25 student profiles (School) under one login
- See usage at a glance for each child — most-used words, session frequency, growth over time
- Keep private, persistent notes for each child — goals, session summaries, family context
- Switch between profiles with one tap — no logging out between sessions or students
- Purchase orders welcome for schools and districts
Simple, and it stays that way
Free to download on the App Store and Google Play. Every plan is a single one-time purchase — no subscription, no auto-renew, no ads, ever.
Free
- Grid — the full home board with sentence building
- Pain Map
- Text-to-speech voice
- BunBun's guided tour for new families
Premium
- Everything in Free
- Quick phrases board, with the full Words & Phrases library
- Type-to-speak Keyboard
- Search every word & phrase
- Edit any card — rename, re-picture, hide & revert
- Custom cards, Favorites & the Mine tab
- Calm corner — breathe, draw, sing & videos
Available as an in-app purchase inside the free app.
Pro
- Everything in Premium
- Manage up to 10 child profiles under one login
- Caregiver Dashboard — usage insights per child
- Private, persistent notes for each child
- One-tap switching between profiles
Available as an in-app purchase inside the free app.
School
- Everything in Pro
- Manage up to 25 student profiles under one login
- Built for a classroom or district-wide caseload
- Purchase orders welcome
Available as an in-app purchase inside the free app, or by purchase order.
Good to know
Yes. Your child's boards, photos, and settings belong to your family. We don't sell data, we don't show ads, and we don't track your child.
iOS and Android, on both phones and tablets — including iPad. It's the same full app on every device.
Yes. Your purchase is tied to the Apple ID or Google account that bought it — tap "Restore Purchases" in Settings on the new device and it comes right back. Family Sharing works too, so eligible family members' devices unlock automatically.
Any child who communicates better with pictures and spoken cards — whether they're autistic, have a speech delay, or are still developing verbal language. It was designed with young non-verbal children in mind, but there's no age limit on having a voice.
Really. The app is free to download, the free features are free forever, and Premium is a single one-time in-app purchase — download the app first, then unlock everything whenever you're ready. We think a child's voice shouldn't come with a monthly bill.
Never — Cottontail contains no advertising of any kind. One honest note: our Sing-Along songs are licensed and built right into the app, so they're always ad-free. Calm Videos plays through YouTube, so if a clip carries YouTube's own ads, those come from YouTube, not from us.
Cottontail is actively developed, and family requests drive the roadmap. If there's something your child needs, we want to hear about it — reach out any time.
Ready when they are.
Cottontail is finishing App Store and Google Play review — check back soon to download it free.