What is Strokecovery?

Strokecovery is a speech practice app for stroke survivors living with aphasia. It shows you a picture of an everyday object, you say the word out loud, and the app tells you how close you got. Cues fade as you improve. That is the whole app — we are building one thing properly rather than many things badly.

Not yet. Nothing is live for users today. This site collects the beta list and we are building in the open — the first working version is ten English words, end to end. Sign up and we will tell you when there is something real to try.

Will it work in my language?

That is the plan. The first version is English only. After that, each person practises in English plus one other language of their choosing — Tamil, Hindi, Spanish, French and others. Practising word finding in a language you do not think in is not really practice, which is why this matters to us.

Do I need to install an app from the App Store?

No. Strokecovery runs in the browser and can be added to your phone's home screen, where it opens like an ordinary app. There is no App Store download and no native app.

The beta is free. We have not decided what happens after that, and we would rather say so than promise something we cannot keep.

Does this replace a speech therapist?

No. Strokecovery is practice between sessions, not a substitute for a speech and language therapist, and it is not a medical device. It does not diagnose anything or make treatment decisions.

Now Recruiting Beta Testers

One thing, done properly

Finding the words again, in your own language

Strokecovery is daily speech practice for stroke survivors living with aphasia. You see a picture, you say the word, and the app tells you honestly how close you got. The help fades as you get stronger. That is the whole app — and we are building it before we build anything else.

Join the Beta See How It Works

One

feature, finished before the next one starts

Aphasia

the one problem we are starting with

Not live

nothing to use yet — we say so plainly

Today's Practice

Word 6 of 10

Level 3

🐕

Say the word

D _ _

Last attempt

Clear

Language

English

This week

Small wins, measured clearly

5 day streak

A design sketch

Not a screenshot — it does not exist yet

Why this, and not another app

Three things we are getting right

Each one exists because we watched it go wrong

Your language, not just English

Practising word finding in a language you do not think in is not really practice. After the first English release, each person practises in English plus one language of their own — Tamil, Hindi, Spanish, French, or another.

Honest feedback, not a fake number

You say the word; the app listens and answers in plain terms — clear, close, or not yet. No score pretending to be precise. And because speech recognition is weakest on exactly the speech this app is for, we are designing it so you can tell it when it got you wrong.

Help that gets out of the way

Early on you get the written word and the first sound. As you get stronger, those cues drop away one at a time, until it is just the picture and you. Five levels, tracked separately for each language.

Four steps. That is the whole app.

A few minutes a day, on the phone already in your pocket

Step 1

You see a picture

An everyday object — a dog, a cup, a key. Nothing abstract, nothing clever. Just the kind of word that comes up in a real conversation.

Step 2

You say the word

One tap to record. No timer counting down, no one waiting on you. Take as long as you need, and try again as often as you like.

Step 3

You get a straight answer

Clear, close, or not yet. The scoring happens on our server rather than in the browser, so it works the same on every phone — and if you want to hear the word first, there is a button for that.

Step 4

It moves with you

Words you find hard come back around. Words you have got move aside. The cues fade level by level, and the words you are still working on stay in the queue.

Who we are building this with

The beta is small on purpose. We would rather get it right for a few people than vaguely right for everybody.

The Survivor

"I know the word. I just can't get it out."

Practice on your own time, between therapy sessions, without anyone watching or waiting. Especially if you want to practise in your own language.

The Caregiver

"I want to help without taking over."

Sit alongside, set it up, hand the phone over. We want to hear where the app needs a second pair of hands and where it should get out of the way.

The Speech Therapist

"Show me how it scores, and I'll tell you if it's wrong."

We want your judgement on the scoring, not your patients' records. There is no clinician portal and no dashboard — that is deliberate, and it is not coming soon.

12M+

Strokes per year worldwide

~1 in 3

Stroke survivors experience aphasia

Years

Language can keep improving well past the first months

1 in 4

Survivors are under 65

"Aphasia takes the language, not the person. The thinking is all still there — it is the road out that is blocked."

Accessibility is the product, not a setting

These are commitments we are holding ourselves to as we build. Join the beta and hold us to them.

Large Text

Generous body text that scales with your phone's own text-size setting

Aphasia-Friendly Words

Short sentences, one instruction at a time, no jargon anywhere

Strong Contrast

Designed past the WCAG AA minimum, and checked rather than assumed

Nowhere to Get Lost

Practice is never more than a tap or two away from where you start

Big Tap Targets

Sized for tremor and weak grip, not for pixel-perfect fingers

One Hand Is Enough

Everything reachable with a single thumb, either hand

Building in the open

Where we actually are

There is no app to use today. Here is the honest state of it.

Done

The plumbing

This site, and the beta list
Server and deploys, running live
A shell you can add to your home screen

In progress

Ten words, end to end

Record on a real phone, and prove it works
Ten English words with pictures
Say it, score it, see the result

After that

Levels, then languages

A real word bank instead of ten
Five levels and fading cues
Your second language

We are not putting dates on these. The last version of this app tried to build everything at once and shipped nothing — so this time each step has to be working and in front of real people before the next one starts.

About Aphasia

A few things worth knowing, whether you are living with it or standing beside someone who is

The main thing 1 of 6

Aphasia affects language, not intelligence. The thoughts, the memories, the sense of humour — all still there. It is getting them out through words that is damaged.

How common 2 of 6

Roughly one in three stroke survivors experiences aphasia. It is one of the most common effects of stroke, and one of the least talked about.

Did you know? 3 of 6

Difficulty finding a word you clearly know — anomia — is the most common symptom of aphasia. The word is there. The route to it is blocked.

Recovery 4 of 6

The brain keeps forming new pathways for years after a stroke. Improvement is fastest early on, but it does not stop at six months, whatever anyone told you at discharge.

For caregivers 5 of 6

Finishing someone's sentence is meant kindly and lands as a door closing. Give the extra few seconds. The word often arrives on its own.

Practice 6 of 6

Recovery is not a straight line. Some days the words come easily and some days they will not come at all — and a bad day is not the practice failing.

Built from lived experience

She had to relearn my name — the name she gave me

On March 13, 2022, my mother had a hemorrhagic stroke — a 50 mL brain bleed, a 1.7 cm midline shift, and an emergency decompressive craniectomy just to survive the night. The doctors gave her a prognosis of lifelong wheelchair dependency. She was 56. I was 31.

The bleed damaged her Broca's area. It was six weeks before she uttered a single word. She could see the words in her mind — she just couldn't get them out. She had to relearn language from scratch. Including my name.

Six months later, she was walking.

I first tried to build all of it at once — the medication log, the therapy calendar, the exercise tracker, the lot. It never became anything anyone could use. So this time it is one thing, the thing I watched her fight hardest for. Words.

Gireesh Sundaram

Caregiver & Creator, Strokecovery

Read our full story @GireeshS22

Improvement cannot be measured overnight. But patience and practice, with a positive mindset, will carry you a long way.

Four years of recovery distilled into one truth

Years of recovery journey

50+

Research papers read

Therapy programs attended

10+

Books on neuroplasticity

Help shape the product

Join the Beta

We are looking for stroke survivors living with aphasia, the people caring for them, and speech therapists willing to tell us when we have got it wrong. The beta is free.

Survivor Caregiver Speech Therapist

No spam. We'll only email you about beta access and launch updates.