Helping every child find their voice.
Our vision is to become the world’s most trusted AI speech development platform for children — a place where families begin with confidence and never feel they have to figure it out alone.
The gap we set out to close
When a parent first senses something is off with their child’s speech, the hardest part is often the very first step: where do I even start? Information is scattered, waitlists are long, and the months that matter most can slip by while families search for answers.
SpeechStep is built to be the trusted front door. We help families begin with trusted education, practice confidently at home, and connect with licensed speech-language pathologists when professional support is needed — so the path from worry to action is clear instead of overwhelming.
We build it with clinicians, not instead of them — pairing technology that scales daily practice with the clinical expertise that keeps it trustworthy.
Why I built SpeechStep
Sachin Anand
Founder of SpeechStep
SpeechStep started at my own kitchen table. Both of my children have a lisp — my teenager a slight one, my younger child a more noticeable one. Watching them, and wanting to help without getting it wrong, is what sent me deep into the research on how children’s speech actually develops.
I’m an engineer by training — a B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in Electrical Engineering (Communications and Electronics). For years my work has lived in signal processing and acoustics, which turns out to be exactly the ground SpeechStep stands on: real acoustic modeling of speech, using wav2vec2 phoneme recognition and Goodness-of-Pronunciation scoring, rather than guesswork about what a child said.
So SpeechStep comes from two things at once — an engineer’s rigor about what the technology can honestly measure, and a parent’s motivation to get it right for kids who sound a lot like mine. That’s also why the whole platform is built with licensed clinicians, and why it stays honest about where its help ends and a professional’s begins.
SpeechStep is part of the Mendios family of products, built alongside Nexalink and I’m Alive.
Three products, one flywheel
Each piece stands on its own — and together they form the digital front door for pediatric speech therapy.
Knowledge Hub
Free, evidence-based content that helps parents understand what they’re seeing, what’s typical, and what the next step looks like — written in plain language.
Free tools + daily AI practice
Free assessments and tools, plus AI-guided daily practice that turns guidance into consistent reps at home, between sessions and beyond.
A network of licensed SLPs
When a child needs professional care, we connect families to license-verified pediatric speech-language pathologists — not a paid directory.
Together, they make SpeechStep the digital front door for pediatric speech therapy.
We support clinicians — we don’t replace them
AI handles daily practice. Clinicians provide the expertise.
We bring families to clinicians
High-intent parents who’ve learned and practiced arrive ready to work with a licensed SLP.
We improve practice between sessions
AI-guided daily reps keep progress moving so each appointment starts further ahead.
We hold content to a high clinical standard
Clinical review keeps everything we publish accurate, responsible, and trustworthy.
SpeechStep supports professional care — it never substitutes for an evaluation, diagnosis, or treatment by a licensed clinician.
A high bar for everything we publish
Trust is the whole product. Here’s how we earn it.
Evidence-based by default
Every article is grounded in published guidance from sources like ASHA, NIDCD, AAP, and the CDC — never invented advice.
Reviewed by clinicians
Increasingly, our content is reviewed by named, license-verified pediatric SLPs through the SpeechStep Network.
Honest about its limits
SpeechStep is educational and supportive. It is not a diagnosis, and it never replaces an evaluation by a licensed professional.
Content is reviewed against trusted public guidance — including ASHA, NIDCD, AAP, and the CDC — and, increasingly, by named licensed clinicians through our SpeechStep Network.
Build the trusted front door with us
Whether you’re a clinician who wants a say in the platform or a parent looking for a place to start, there’s a door here for you.
Just here to look around? Explore the free tools →