Guide

An S2C app: spelling to communicate on an iPad

If your speller works on stencil boards and a letterboard, the question sooner or later is whether any of it can move to a tablet — and whether a tablet ruins the thing that made the boards work. TBoard is a spelling app built for exactly that transition: a typing-first app where the person spells, letter by letter, and the app speaks it.

What families searching for an "S2C app" usually want

Not a grid of picture symbols. Spellers have already moved past that — they have letters, and a symbol board puts a ceiling on what they can say. What they want is the board they already use, with three things added: speech, so the message is heard by someone who wasn't holding the board; independence, so the words are unambiguously theirs; and practice, so the skill keeps developing between sessions.

The layouts spellers already know

TBoard includes stencil-style layouts alongside the full 26-letter board, QWERTY, and numbers — and a board builder that lets you rebuild whatever arrangement the person is already fluent on, at whatever size works. Nothing has to be relearned. The layout stays put underneath them; the targets stay big and well spaced.

Independence, stated plainly

The speller taps every letter themselves. There is no facilitation in the app and no one else's hand in the message. That matters both ethically and practically: a typed message that speaks aloud, produced by the person alone, is a message that travels — to a teacher, a doctor, a grandparent who has never held a board.

TBoard is independent and method-neutral. It is not affiliated with, certified by, or endorsed by Spelling to Communicate, the Spellers Method, RPM, I-ASC, or any other named methodology or organisation, and the terms above are used only to describe the communities this app was built to serve. It is not therapy and makes no treatment claims.

What happens between sessions

Sessions with a practitioner are limited; the days between them aren't. Because the board is a keyboard, TBoard can put practice on top of it: three fresh read-along lessons daily at three levels, with spelling targets and questions a family member can run without preparation, plus practice rounds and a record of every session — accuracy, first-try answers, and letter-by-letter patterns over time. You can also build lessons from your own text, a photo, or a PDF, so the school's material becomes the practice.

Motor difficulty is the design problem

For many spellers, hitting the right target is the barrier — not knowing the word. TBoard's touch settings exist for that: a tap guard that ignores accidental repeat taps, adjustable tap timing (a touch can register on press or on release), one-tap correction, and large well-spaced keys. There's more in our apraxia-friendly AAC guide and our letterboard app guide.

Common questions

Is there an app for spelling to communicate? Yes — that's what TBoard is: stencil and full-alphabet layouts, big targets, speech for whatever is spelled, on iPad and Android.

Does the speller type independently? Yes. No facilitation, no physical support, no one else's hand in the message.

Is TBoard affiliated with S2C or the Spellers Method? No — independent and method-neutral, not affiliated with, certified by, or endorsed by any named methodology or organisation.

Can we practise between practitioner sessions? Yes — daily lessons, practice rounds, and a session record, all built on the same board.

Will it work for someone who doesn't have letters yet? Probably not — a symbol-based AAC app is a better starting point. See our AAC app guide for the comparison.

Try it

The communication core — the board, text-to-speech, and custom boards — is free, with a 14-day full trial of lessons, practice, stats, premium voices, and family messaging.

TBoard on the App Store (iPad)
TBoard on Google Play (Android tablets)

See it moving: the TBoard tour · Questions: support@mutedlabs.com