For grown-ups

Why grown-ups go first

The best-evidenced way to help a little one with feelings is adult emotion-talk — a caring grown-up naming feelings out loud, sharing their own, and wondering together. TalkTots gives you the words. Each talk has three moves: show me the feeling (your child makes it — never reads a cartoon face), when did you feel it today, and …and me too (you share yours). Then a tiny closing ritual. Two minutes, out loud, together.

Every feeling belongs

There is no “bad” feeling and no goal — TalkTots never tells a child to “cheer up” or “calm down”. Angry, sleepy, and sad are as real and okay as happy and proud. The warm words and the cool words both belong. A picture-word gives your child something to point at before they can say it, and 🔊 reads any talk aloud.

A deck, not a diary

This is the one promise that makes TalkTots different: it is a prompt deck, not a mood log. Your child’s feelings are never saved — not on the device, not anywhere. There is no “how do you feel today?” check-in that gets stored, no history, no diary. The talk that shows up simply changes with the day. There is no microphone and no camera. Nothing you tap or say ever leaves this device.

When a feeling stays big

TalkTots helps a family talk about feelings; it is not therapy and does not measure anyone. If a feeling stays big or heavy for a while, the strongest move is a real one: talk with another trusted grown-up, or a family doctor. A daily talk is a spark; a caring adult is the anvil.

What do you do with the mad that you feel?

Fred Rogers asked that question in a song on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. His answer: you can stop, and do something else instead. Three things a family can try when someone is mad: stamp your feet and say “I’m MAD!”, squeeze a pillow hard, or take three big dragon breaths together.

Our privacy promise

TalkTots Play is free, works offline, and collects nothing. No accounts, no ads, no tracking, no microphone, no camera; nothing you or your child feels or taps ever leaves this device. There is nothing to save, and so nothing is saved.

The grown-up side of the same idea, on Spark & Whetstone, our free site for grown-ups: Feelings at Our Table. One feelings-talk a day with them; the grown-up half is here.