The original Look2Talk package was based upon experience gained from the Look2Talk Project, a two year project run by Ace Centre to support and learn from six children and their families who either used or were learning to use their eyes to access symbol communication. The guide was awarded the Sternberg Award for Clinical Innovation in 2008.
Each of the children involved in the project progressed in different ways and, along with their families, taught us so much. All of the children and their families were filmed regularly during the project and some clips from this filming are featured within this guide.
This edition of the Look2Talk package has been fully revised and updated, drawing upon the clinical experience of the full Ace Centre team.
While the Look2Talk Project focussed on the communication needs of children, many of the approaches identified are also relevant for adults with learning disabilities. This updated and revised approach includes a wider range of example topic pages to reflect this.
There is no ‘one’ way of creating a communication book, and everyone’s communication book will be highly personalised to them. This is simply an approach that you can follow as rigorously or as flexibly as suits you and the learner. The package contains a suggested core vocabulary and lots of demonstration pages to give a flavour of how the ideas can be put into practice for both children and adults.
The emphasis throughout this guide is on the communication partner – you are key to the success of a communication book. You will need to become a role model for supporting communication through symbols. But please don’t be daunted by this! Communicating by pointing to symbols as you talk is genuinely enjoyable and communicating with someone in this way is very rewarding.