My Avatar
The child’s own face in the corner of every screen
The avatar is the child’s self-representation — a small, expressive character in the bottom-left corner of every scene. It’s always there, always reachable. One tap opens the feelings tray, giving the child instant access to emotional expression without navigating away from whatever they’re doing.
This is not a helper or a teacher — this is “me.” The avatar represents the child. When they tap it and say “I’m sad,” they’re expressing themselves, not interacting with a character. The distinction matters clinically: the avatar is an extension of the child’s identity, not an external agent.
“This is me” · One tap to feel
Three purposes — all about the child expressing themselves
The avatar is the child’s emotional voice. Everything it provides connects to one goal: letting the child say how they feel, right now, with one tap.
Feelings Express
Tap the avatar and a tray of ~13 emotions opens. “I’m happy,” “I’m sad,” “I’m hungry,” “I’m tired.” Tapping any feeling speaks it immediately — no conversation loop, no follow-ups. Feelings are urgent.
“I Love You” Button
Always accessible through the avatar. A child should always be able to tell their parent “I love you” with a single tap. This is the most important sentence in any language.
Scene-Contextual Feelings
The feelings tray adapts to the current scene. In the kitchen: “I’m hungry,” “yummy!” In the bedroom: “I’m sleepy,” “goodnight!” The avatar knows where the child is and surfaces the most relevant emotions.
The avatar (bottom-left) is the child’s self — feelings, emotional expression, “I love you.” The Buddy (bottom-right) is the child’s helper — engagement, signing, word learning. During emotional expression (avatar interactions), the Buddy stays silent. The child’s feelings are never interrupted.
Four simple steps — from tap to speech
The entire interaction takes a few seconds. No menus, no navigation, no confusion.
Child taps their avatar
The avatar sits in the bottom-left corner of every screen. One tap is all it takes. The avatar acknowledges with a gentle pulse — “I hear you.”
Feelings tray slides open
A tray of emotion cards appears above the avatar, showing feelings relevant to the current scene. In the kitchen, the child sees “hungry” and “yummy.” At bedtime, they see “sleepy” and “goodnight.” Each feeling has a big picture and a word — no reading required.
Child taps a feeling — it speaks immediately
No conversation loop. No follow-up suggestions. No “did you mean...?” The child taps “sad” and the iPad says “I’m sad” out loud. Done. The feeling has been expressed.
Tray auto-closes
After 5 seconds of no interaction, or when the child taps outside the tray, it slides closed and the avatar returns to its resting state. The child is back to the main screen, ready to keep communicating or move on.
Emotional expression can’t wait for a conversation
In clinical AAC practice, emotional expression is treated differently from conversational communication. When a child is sad, frustrated, or in pain, they need to express that feeling right now — not navigate a conversation tree, not select from follow-up prompts, not wait for the app to process their intent.
Every other AAC app on the market routes feelings through the same conversation engine as everything else. “I’m hungry” takes the same number of steps as “I want the red ball.” Meadow recognizes that these are fundamentally different communication acts.
Feeling expressed. Parent hears it. Child is understood.
By the time the child navigates the menu, the moment has passed.
Clinical foundation
SLPs consistently report that emotional expression is the highest-priority communication for pre-verbal children. A child who can reliably express “I’m in pain,” “I’m scared,” or “I’m sad” has a fundamentally different quality of life than a child who cannot. Meadow treats these expressions as first-class citizens — one tap, immediate output, no conversation overhead.
What “done” looks like for My Avatar
Every item must pass before the avatar ships.
| Requirement | What This Means | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Tappable from every screen | The avatar is visible and tappable in the bottom-left corner on every scene, every view, every state of the app | Required |
| Context-appropriate feelings | Feelings tray shows emotions and phrases relevant to the current scene | Required |
| Immediate speech on tap | Tapping any feeling speaks it aloud instantly — no conversation loop, no follow-ups | Required |
| “I love you” always accessible | Fires from the avatar — always reachable in one or two taps | Required |
| Auto-dismiss | Tray closes on outside tap or after 5 seconds of no interaction | Required |