SonSpeak — Fact Sheet
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A free AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) app for non-verbal
autistic kids and their families. Built by a parent who was homeless and
used DoorDash menu photos as makeshift AAC for his son.

Founded
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2025-2026 by a parent who was previously homeless. AI used as co-builder.
No outside funding. LLC formation in progress (Q1 2026).

The problem
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- Existing AAC apps cost $200-$300 (Proloquo2Go, TouchChat, TD Snap).
- Dedicated speech-output devices cost $3,000-$10,000.
- Insurance often denies AAC coverage for kids who "might" speak someday.
- Result: families pay out of pocket or go without a voice.

What we built
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- Symbol/picture board with text-to-speech in 30+ languages.
- Custom voice recording per tile (record mom, dad, siblings).
- Custom photos per tile (real snacks, real toys, real family).
- AI predictive next-word (Gemini 3 Flash via Emergent LLM key).
- AI custom symbol generation (Gemini Nano Banana, bulk-illustrate).
- AI Therapist Coach: reads each child's tap history and gives parents
  personalised, evidence-based advice — free.
- Full accessibility suite: switch scanning, dwell-tap, lockdown,
  modeling mode, high-contrast theme, reduced-motion theme.
- Day/Night auto-switching with bedtime-only vocab.
- Therapist multi-client dashboard with weekly progress reports,
  IEP-ready CSVs, share-link push to families.
- Family-to-family referrals: both sides earn a free month each.
- Sponsored-pass system: yearly therapists give 40 free 1-year passes
  to low-income families per year.
- Multi-language UI (EN/ES/FR), gestalt language processor support.
- Public family-story directory (opt-in, AI-moderated, no child names).
- COPPA-ready privacy: no third-party trackers, no ads, no AI training
  on child voice.
- PWA with full offline support. Capacitor-ready iOS/Android wrapper.

Pricing (free during launch)
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Family standard: $2/month or $12/year
Family clinician-referred: $1/month or $6/year (50% off)
Family sponsored: free for 1 year (gifted by yearly-tier therapist)
Therapist monthly: $49.99/month
Therapist yearly: $499.99/year, includes 40 free yearly passes

How we compare
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                          SonSpeak    Proloquo2Go   TouchChat
Family price              $2/mo       $249.99       $299.99
Custom voice/photo        Unlimited   Limited       Limited
AI sentence suggestions   Yes         No            No
Switch scanning           Free        Paid tier     Paid tier
Multi-language UI         3 free      Paid packs    Paid packs
First-Then schedule       Built-in    No            No
Therapist share link      One-tap     Manual        Manual

Stack
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React PWA + FastAPI + MongoDB. Deployed on Emergent. Single codebase
covers the marketing site (sonspeak.com) and the app — no separate
Next.js or Wordpress. Capacitor wrapper pre-baked for App Store /
Play Store submission.

Privacy commitments
-------------------
- No advertising, no third-party trackers.
- No AI training on child voice or photos.
- Caregiver-pin gated settings.
- COPPA-aligned: kids under 13 never asked for PII; parent accounts
  only.
- Family stories on /community are opt-in by default OFF, AI-moderated
  for PII before publishing, age shown as range only, no last names,
  noindex meta so search engines skip them.
- Account deletion wipes all child media in one tap.

Trust & safety
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- Manual admin verification of every therapist before they appear in
  the directory.
- Permanent admin_audit_log for every approval, rejection, takedown,
  and role change.
- Emergent-managed Google OAuth supported.

Press contact
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press@sonspeak.com
sonspeak.com / sonspeak.com/press

Boilerplate (one paragraph)
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SonSpeak is a free AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) app
for non-verbal autistic children, built by a parent who was homeless and
couldn't afford the existing $200-$300 apps or $3,000-$10,000 dedicated
speech devices. SonSpeak runs on any iPad, iPhone, or Android tablet,
includes AI predictive text and an AI therapist coach, supports custom
voice recording and photos, and ships with a sponsored-pass system that
lets clinicians give 40 free year-long subscriptions per year to families
who can't afford a dollar. Available at sonspeak.com.

Last updated: 2026