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Meadow support

Meadow is a picture-communication app for iPad, for children who are not yet talking. A child taps a picture and the iPad says the word. This page covers the questions parents and therapists ask most.

Getting started

Open Meadow. On the first screen, tap your child’s age and a starting level, then Start Meadow. You can change both later.
You’ll see a room with picture tiles around the edge. Tap any tile and Meadow says the word out loud. That is the whole idea.
Tap the house or the map to visit other rooms — the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, playground, farm, school and more. Each room has its own words.

Hold the iPad sideways. Meadow is designed for landscape and will not turn to portrait; the room needs the width.

Opening the parent settings

Settings open with a deliberate hold, so a quick tap will not open them; for stronger child-proofing, set a PIN inside the Parent Area. In the top-right corner of the board is a small dark gear. Rest one finger on it and hold for three seconds; a ring fills around the icon as it counts. With VoiceOver on, double-tap the gear instead. If you let go early, it reminds you: “Hold 3 seconds.” Settings open when the hold completes.

Settings lock again on their own whenever you leave the app.

Inside settings you can

Change the age, level, voice and speech rate.
Add your own words under My Words — your child’s name, a pet, a comfort toy — with a photo from the camera or photo library if you like.
Hide or show individual words in each room.
Set daily routines so the matching words glow at the right time of day.
Erase your child’s recorded communication history under Privacy & About.
Read the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy under Privacy & About.

Common questions

The tiles light up but nothing is spoken

Check the iPad’s volume with the side buttons, and make sure the iPad is not in Silent mode. Meadow uses the iPad’s built-in voices; if a voice sounds unfamiliar, open the parent settings and pick another under Voice & Sound.

Does Meadow need Wi-Fi?

No. Meadow never uses the internet. Everything works on a plane, in a car, or anywhere else.

Is there an account or a subscription?

No. There is nothing to sign in to and nothing to buy. Meadow is free.

What happens to the words and photos I add?

They stay on this iPad, in Meadow’s private storage. They are not sent to us or to anyone else. The Privacy Policy spells this out in full.

I saw a screen that says “Meadow couldn’t open your child’s setup”

Nothing has been lost. This screen appears only if Meadow cannot read its own files, and it tells you exactly what to do: tap Save a copy of your child’s setup and keep the copy in Files or send it to your child’s therapist. Please do not delete or reinstall Meadow first — that is the one thing that would remove your child’s words. Then contact us with the technical details shown at the bottom of that screen.

Can a therapist use Meadow with several children?

Meadow keeps one child’s setup per iPad. A therapist working with several children uses a separate iPad, or one iPad for one child at a time.

Which iPads work?

Any iPad running iPadOS 18 or later, including the iPad (9th generation) from 2021 and everything newer. Meadow is not available on iPhone.

Contact

Meadow AAC is made and published by Any Funded Need LLC. You can reach us by email at Ari@anyfundedneed.com.

When you write, telling us the iPad model and the iPadOS version (Settings → General → About) helps us answer faster.