Why turns
It’s the back-and-forth that helps, not the word count.
Child-development researchers call it serve and return: your child makes a sound, you answer, and they answer back. Each exchange, an adult and a child within five seconds of each other, is a conversational turn.
A turn doesn’t need words. A coo, a babble or a “ba!” is a turn when you reply to it, so a toddler who isn’t talking much yet can still take lots of turns with you.
Children aged 4 to 6 who had more conversational turns with adults at home showed more activity in Broca’s area, a language region of the brain, while listening to a story. The number of words they heard didn’t explain it on its own.
In a study that followed 146 children for about ten years, the conversational turns they took at 18 to 24 months were linked with their vocabulary and language scores at ages 9 to 14.
Little Turns makes no promise about outcomes. It helps you notice the turns you already take, and leave room for a few more.
How it works
Three steps, then just talk.
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Record your voice once
Say a few sentences on your own so Little Turns can tell your voice from your child’s. A partner or grandparent can add their own voice on the same iPhone.
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Tap Start during your day
Playtime, breakfast, bath or a bedtime story. Put your iPhone face up nearby and carry on as usual. The count goes up each time you take turns.
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See what worked
After each session you see your turns, your words, your child’s sounds and your longest chain, with one line on what worked. Tomorrow brings a new tip.
What you’ll see
Gentle numbers that grow into a habit.
A live count while you talk
Watch the back-and-forths add up, with two lanes for the last two minutes: squares for you, circles for your child.
A summary of every session
Turns, your words, your child’s sounds and the longest chain, minute by minute, and one line on what worked.
A daily goal you choose
A ring that fills through the day and a streak that never scolds. A quiet day is just a quiet day.
One small tip a day
Ideas like naming what your child points at, then waiting three seconds. The pause is their turn.
Your week and month
See which moments bring the most talk, whether it’s play, meals, story time or bath, compared only with your own past.
A monthly report
A one-page PDF made on your iPhone, ready to share with your pediatrician or speech therapist if you’d like to.
On the Lock Screen
The count in the Dynamic Island and on the Lock Screen, Home Screen widgets, and “Start a session” from Siri or the Action button.
The whole family
Several adults and several children on one iPhone, each adult with their own voice and their own sessions.
On-device AI
The AI that listens, and exactly what it is.
Little Turns uses machine learning to tell speech from other sounds, and your voice from your child’s. All of it runs on your iPhone. Nothing is sent to a server, ours or anyone else’s, and there is no chatbot or generative AI inside.
Built into iOS
Apple Sound Analysis
Apple’s on-device sound classifier listens a second at a time and tells speech apart from crying, laughter, singing and music, so a crying spell or a song on the radio isn’t counted as conversation.
Bundled model, Core ML
Speaker recognition: ECAPA-TDNN
An open-source speaker-recognition neural network from the SpeechBrain project (Apache 2.0), converted to Apple’s Core ML and shipped inside the app. It compares each voice with the voiceprint you recorded, so it knows when it’s you. Very short sounds are told apart by pitch instead.
Built into iOS 26
Apple SpeechAnalyzer
Apple’s on-device speech recognition counts your words, and only yours. Each phrase becomes a number and the text is thrown away on the spot. Your child is never transcribed.
Plain rules
Turns and tips
A turn is an adult sound and a child sound within five seconds, in either order; three or more in a row make a chain. The tips are written by people and picked by simple rules, never generated.
No Apple Intelligence needed: Little Turns runs on any iPhone with iOS 26.
Privacy
What you say at home stays at home.
Little Turns listens only after you tap Start, and only on your iPhone. iOS shows its microphone indicator the whole time.
- Sound
- Heard in your iPhone’s memory a moment at a time, then gone. Never saved to a file, never sent anywhere.
- Words
- Your words are counted and the text is dropped at once. There is no transcript, and your child’s sounds are never turned into text.
- Your voiceprint
- A short list of numbers kept on this iPhone. It can’t be played back or turned into speech, and you can delete it any time.
- Counts and notes
- On this iPhone, and inside its own iCloud Backup if you use one. We never see them.
- Us
- No account, no analytics, no ads, no tracking and no third-party code. The App Store privacy label reads Data Not Collected.
Pricing
Everything, on either plan.
Start with 14 days free. Cancel any time in your Apple Account settings.
Yearly
Best value$2.50 a month, half the monthly price
$29.99 per year
Monthly
14 days free, then
$4.99 per month
Both plans include
- Unlimited sessions, live count and chains
- Summaries with your words and your child’s sounds
- Daily goal, streak and a tip every day
- Week and month progress
- The monthly PDF report
- Lock Screen, Dynamic Island and widgets
- Family Sharing with up to five family members
Prices in US dollars; the App Store shows the price in your currency. Payment is charged to your Apple Account and renews automatically unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the period. If you stop, everything you’ve recorded stays readable. No ads, ever.
Questions parents ask
Good questions, plain answers.
Something else? Write to hello@littleturns.app. A person reads every message.
My toddler isn’t saying many words yet. Is Little Turns for us?
Yes. A turn doesn’t need words: a babble, a coo or a “ba!” counts when you answer it, so a child with only a few words can still take lots of turns. Little Turns shows you those exchanges, and its tips are about leaving room for your child’s side: pausing, waiting, following their lead. If your child is a late talker, it can sit alongside whatever your pediatrician or speech therapist suggests.
Can it tell me whether my child has a speech delay?
No. Little Turns is a coaching tool for parents, not a medical or diagnostic device. It doesn’t test or score your child, and it never compares them with other children. If you have questions about how your child talks or understands, talk to your pediatrician or a speech-language pathologist. You can ask at any age.
What age is it for?
Babies and toddlers from birth to about three, the years when talk is mostly coos, babbles, single words and short phrases.
Does it record us?
No. Sound is analysed in your iPhone’s memory a moment at a time and thrown away straight after. Nothing is saved to a file and nothing is sent anywhere. There is nothing to play back, because nothing is kept.
Does Little Turns use AI?
Yes, on-device AI only. Apple’s Sound Analysis finds speech among other sounds, a speaker-recognition model (ECAPA-TDNN, running in Core ML) tells your voice from your child’s, and Apple’s on-device speech recognition counts your words. None of it sends anything off your iPhone, and none of it is generative AI.
How does it know which voice is mine?
You record your voice once, on your own, and Little Turns keeps a voiceprint of it on your iPhone. During a session it compares each voice with yours. Each adult at home can record their own; a visitor who hasn’t counts as neither you nor your child.
We speak two languages at home. Does it work?
Turns are counted from voices, not words, so they count the same in any language. Your word count uses Apple’s on-device speech recognition; where your language isn’t available, the app hides the word count instead of showing a wrong number.
How accurate is the count?
It’s an estimate, made to be a steady guide rather than a lab measurement. It works best with your iPhone face up nearby, the TV off and one conversation at a time. Noise, music, overlapping voices or a phone in a pocket mean some turns are missed. The trend over your week tells you more than any single number.
Which iPhones does it run on?
Any iPhone with iOS 26 or later. Little Turns is made for iPhone only.
What does it cost?
14 days free, then $29.99 a year or $4.99 a month in the US, shared with your family through Family Sharing. There are no ads and no features held back.
Can my partner see our counts on their phone?
Counts stay on the iPhone they were made on, which is how they stay private without an account. Several adults can share one iPhone, each with their own voice and sessions.
Start with your next breakfast.
A few minutes of back-and-forth, counted on your iPhone and never recorded.
For iPhone with iOS 26. 14 days free.