It sees the movement
The front camera follows your child's lips and jaw, like a mirror that understands shapes: pressed lips for "p", rounded lips for "oo", a wide-open mouth for "ah".
ArtiKO · for iPhone & iPad
Speech therapy practice meets playful biofeedback for little voices
Short, wordless games for children aged 3–7 with speech sound disorders or childhood apraxia of speech. ArtiKO watches lip and jaw movement and listens to the sound at the same moment, so it rewards the real movement, not a clap, a cough or the TV.
Watches lips & jaw
Rewarded only when face + voice agree
Multimodal sensor fusion
Two senses, checked together, in real time
Most speech apps only listen for "loud enough". ArtiKO pairs what the camera sees with what the microphone hears and only celebrates when both tell the same story.
It hears the sound
At the same time, the microphone checks whether a real speech sound happened: the little pop of a "p", the hiss of an "s", a long, steady "ahh".
It celebrates the real thing
The frog hops or the balloon rises only when movement and sound line up. Background noise gets a calm "not yet", never a buzzer, so your child practises the right habit.
Articulatory and acoustic evidence together
Each production is judged on what the child's articulators did as well as what the microphone heard. Environmental noise, taps and non-speech sounds are not reinforced, which protects against rewarding incorrect motor habits.
Built around pediatric motor development
ArtiKO is designed for the speech of 3- to 7-year-olds, whose movements are quicker, smaller and more variable than an adult's. Its decisions reflect how preschool speech actually develops rather than adult norms.
Personalised to each child
ArtiKO adapts to each child's own abilities while holding a fixed clinical minimum, so practice stays achievable without accepting productions that shouldn't count.
Principles of Motor Learning
Rich live feedback during acquisition gradually gives way to results-only feedback as a child becomes consistent, and support returns automatically when it's needed. Fading never changes how a production is measured, so progress stays comparable over time.
Therapeutic games
Every game trains one motor skill
Each world is built around a specific articulatory target, with a calm, wordless loop: a spoken model, live feedback while your child tries, and a celebration when it clicks.
Pond Leap · Hopping Frog
Every crisp lip "pop" sends the frog hopping to the next lily pad. Repeating "pa-pa-pa" builds a rhythm across the pond toward the far shore.
- Trains
- Lip-closing "p" and "b" sounds and syllable rhythm
- Records
- Accuracy and syllable pace
Aero-Voyage · Hot Air Balloon
A long, steady voice lights the burner and lifts the balloon toward the summit, while turning the head gently steers it. Rounded lips for "oo" and an open jaw for "ah" shape the flight.
- Trains
- Lip rounding, jaw opening and sustained phonation
- Records
- How long a sound is sustained
Silence never drops the balloon below where it started. It parachutes gently onto a cloud.
Mimic Jungle · Copycat Monkey
A cheeky monkey copies your child's face. Together they open wide, pucker, smile and press lips together, holding each shape while the ring fills.
- Trains
- Oral-motor imitation and holding mouth postures, a key cue for oral apraxia
- Records
- Range of movement per posture
The Stomping Bridge · Bridge Troll
Each clean "t" or "k" stomps a stepping stone into place, building a bridge across the river.
- Trains
- Tongue sounds "t", "d", "k" and "g"
- Records
- Accuracy and pace
The Cloud Sailboat
A long "sss" or "shh" fills the sail and carries the boat to a celebration island.
- Trains
- Sustained "s", "sh" and "f" sounds, and telling "s" and "sh" apart
- Records
- Accuracy and how long the sound is sustained
Magic Forest · Rune Portal
Saying a word clearly, right to its last sound, makes the rune door glow and open. A warm "I heard you" glow always answers an attempt.
EchoGrove · Sound Safari
A gentle cool-down: your child turns their head to pick the picture that matches a sound, then says it themselves. Builds auditory discrimination before production.
Speech Explorer
A picture tour that practises the rest of your child's sounds in real words.
The daily journey
Ten calm minutes a day, planned for you
ArtiKO plans each day's practice from your child's own progress and runs a three-act session. The clock only counts active play, so pausing, a phone call or a wandering toddler costs nothing.
Act 1 · 2 min
Warm-up
Mimic Jungle wakes up lips and jaw with copy-the-monkey postures.
Act 2 · 6 min
Core focus
The game that matches today's target sound.
Act 3 · 2 min
Cool-down
A gentle finish, so every day ends on a success.
Clinical & pediatric invariants
Rules ArtiKO never breaks
These aren't settings. They are written into ArtiKO's engineering constitution and checked in code review.
Pre-K zero-text mandate
No letters, phonetic symbols or words on any child-facing screen. Everything is shown through characters, pictures, motion and a spoken model, so attention goes to motor planning, not reading.
Zero-punishment architecture
Positive reinforcement only: no game-over screens, no buzzers, no countdown clocks and no red on any evaluative signal. Mistakes pause the scene gently; a demonstration appears if your child hesitates.
100% on-device sensing
Camera frames, depth data and microphone audio are processed in memory and never saved or sent. No video, photo, face mesh or voice recording ever leaves the iPad or iPhone.
Medical honesty
If a measure isn't implemented or wasn't captured, the report shows "—", never a zero or an estimate. Abandoned attempts never drag down long-term averages.
Parent portal & SLP dossier
Progress you can hand to your therapist
A parent-only dashboard shows sessions, accuracy trends and sound families. One tap exports a single-page PDF designed for a speech-language pathologist's records.
- Accuracy by sound
- How each target sound is progressing over time
- Consistency
- How reliably a sound is produced from attempt to attempt
- Sustained sounds
- How long your child can hold a sound
- Movement & stability
- Range and steadiness of mouth movements
- Syllable pace
- Rhythm in repetition games
- Session trends
- Practice time, drop-off and within-session changes
Private by design. Records stay on the device and in your family's private iCloud. The PDF names your child only by a short profile code and age in months: no name, birth date, audio or images.
ArtiKO reports are a therapy-aid practice record, not a diagnostic instrument. ArtiKO ships no age-stratified norms, so nothing is scored against a population.
Questions from parents & clinicians
Frequently asked questions
Does ArtiKO store camera footage of my child?
No. The TrueDepth camera feed is analysed in the device's memory while your child plays. ArtiKO uses it only to follow lip and jaw movement in the moment, then discards it. No video, photo, face mesh or biometric template is ever saved to the device or sent anywhere.
Does ArtiKO record my child's voice?
No. Sound is analysed live on the device and never saved as a recording. Progress records hold numbers such as accuracy and duration. In two activities, and only if a parent allows research sharing, ArtiKO can send anonymous numeric measurements, including a numeric summary of a fraction of a second of sound, which is not an audio recording. The Privacy Policy lists every field.
How does ArtiKO help with Childhood Apraxia of Speech?
Children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech benefit from frequent, well-structured practice of speech movements. ArtiKO turns that practice into short daily games: copying mouth postures, repeating syllables, holding sounds. It gives rich live feedback at first and gradually fades it as your child becomes consistent, following the Principles of Motor Learning. ArtiKO supports home practice between sessions with your speech-language pathologist; it is not a treatment on its own.
Is ArtiKO a replacement for speech therapy?
No. ArtiKO is a home-practice and motor-learning tool. It does not diagnose speech disorders and does not replace assessment or treatment by a qualified speech-language pathologist.
My child cannot read yet. Can they still use ArtiKO?
Yes. Every child-facing screen is wordless. Targets and feedback are shown through animals, pictures, motion and a friendly spoken model, so pre-readers can focus on the movement rather than on text.
Which devices does ArtiKO support?
ArtiKO runs on iPhone and iPad with iOS 17 or later. Full face-and-voice biofeedback needs a device with a TrueDepth (Face ID) front camera. On other devices, activities that can work on sound alone continue in a voice-only mode.
Can I share progress with my child's speech-language pathologist?
Yes. The parent area can export a one-page PDF report with practice metrics and trends. It identifies your child only by a short profile code and age in months, never by name or date of birth, and contains no audio or images.
Does ArtiKO show ads or track my child?
No. ArtiKO contains no advertising and no third-party advertising or behavioural-tracking SDKs, and it does not build profiles of children.
ArtiKO is coming soon to the App Store
Want to know the day it launches, or join our clinician pilot? Email contact@nihiliovision.com and we'll write back once. No newsletters, no mailing list sold or shared.
Clinical disclaimer. ArtiKO is an adjunctive home-practice tool and gamified motor-learning platform. It is not a medical device, does not diagnose any condition and is not a substitute for professional speech-language therapy or medical care. A parent or guardian should set up ArtiKO and supervise its use. See our Terms of Service.