In a bilingual home, the hard part is rarely motivation. It is practice. A second language needs to be heard and spoken in ordinary moments — not in a weekly lesson — and that is difficult to arrange when only one parent speaks it, or when the family that speaks it lives four time zones away.

Ted speaks more than 60 languages, and you decide which one, from the parent app, whenever you like.

Why daily practice matters more than lessons

Between the ages of three and six, children learn a language the way they learn everything else at that age: through repetition, conversation and play. Short exchanges, repeated every day, do more than a long session once a week. The research on this is fairly consistent, and we summarised it in how much daily practice a bilingual child actually needs.

The common worry — that a second language slows a child's speech — is addressed in what the research says about bilingualism and speech. The short answer is reassuring.

Who this is for

• Bilingual families where only one parent speaks the second language, and the exposure is uneven.
• Families living abroad who want their child to keep the home language alive alongside the school one.
• Grandparents in another country, when a video call is not enough to build a shared language. We wrote about that in staying close across languages.
• Parents starting a language early, wondering when the right moment is. See the best age to start a second language.

How it works in practice

You set the language in the Ted&Co parent app, along with the listening mode — push-to-talk or automatic — and the parental controls. Change the language whenever you want: English on weekdays and Spanish at the weekend is a perfectly reasonable way to use Ted, and it costs nothing extra, because there is no subscription and no language pack to buy.

Ted has no camera — a microphone and a speaker, nothing more — and is certified CE, RED, EN71, GDPR and COPPA. Our safety and privacy page sets out how conversations are handled.

Questions parents ask

How many languages does Ted speak?

More than 60, including English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Mandarin, Arabic, Hindi, Japanese and many regional variants.

Can Ted switch languages?

Yes, from the parent app, as often as you like. There is no extra charge for any language.

From what age?

Ted is designed for children aged 3 and over.

Will Ted replace speaking with my child?

No, and it should not. Ted adds practice between the conversations that matter most — the ones with you.

Meet Ted — one teddy, more than 60 languages.