Look2Talk - An Update

Katharine Buckley & Clare Latham

Overview

• Background to the project

• Introduction to Look2Talk

• Walk through the stages

• Practicalities

• On reflection

• Talk Together

Background to the Project

Where did we start?

• A Guide to Developing and Using a Communication Book

• Stable core vocabulary that is available whatever is being talked about

• Recognition that extra support needed for eye-pointing communicators – not a simple adaptation!

First Attempt (2004)!

Look2Talk

• Worked on the eye pointing book on and off for 2 years • Then the Look2Talk project enabled us to try it out with

six families over an 18 month period• The project came to an end in April 2008

• Funders: Elsevier Science Ltd, Eranda Foundation, Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, Gatsby Charitable Foundation, Good Neighbours Trust, John Horniman Children’s Trust, Kirby Laing Foundation, St James’s Place Foundation

Project Outcomes

• Guide Book• DVD with clips of

children and tutorial clips

• Templates for Boardmaker

• Core and sample pages

• Sturdy binder

Introduction to Look2Talk

Look2Talk Communication Book

• A five-stage approach to making and using a communication book

• Core vocabulary is available from every page• Core vocabulary develops and increases along

developmental lines• An emphasis on the functional use of language • Enables achievement at identified speaking and listening

P-levels• At each stage there are suggestions on ‘readiness’, and

aims for both the learner and the communication partner• A lot of attention is given to communication partner skills• There is an emphasis on developing use of symbols

through play

Key Themes

• Ideas rather than perfect sentences

Key Themes

• Taking the pressure off

• Acknowledge difficulty of reading eye pointing – harder for the partner than the child

• Value current communication strategies – this is adding to their existing system

• Importance of the communication partner

• A team approach

Walk through the stages

Stage 1

• ‘Taking the pressure off’ led us to move away from using an E-tran frame at this stage

• Introduction– Empower the learner’s

eyes within communication (pause, watch and respond)

– Introduce photographs (for pleasure rather than choice-making)

Picture/video of child

Stage 1

• Next steps– Introduce the

individual symbols ‘more’ and ‘stop’

Picture/video of child

Stage 2

• Introduce communication book with core vocabulary ‘more’ and ‘stop’

• Suggest using either two or four topic symbols

Stage 2

What We Learned

• Encourage all family members to use the symbols too

• Help the child be in control of activities • Help the child to physically hold the toys• Be ready to change activities quickly • Change positions and allow for ‘wiggle

time’• Get the communication book out at

bedtime alongside other story books

What We Learned Cont’d

• Need to think about how the book is positioned

• May begin by keeping the book between you and your learner then move to side

• Play doesn’t always take place at a table!

Picture/video of child

Stage 3

Stage 3

• Two new core words – ‘help’ and ‘no’

• Introduce page turning within discrete activities

• Encoding

What We Learned

• Encoding can feel quite baffling at first

• Note how Milly really emphasises her eye pointing to support her communication partner

• DVD has tutorials on what is encoding, how to model encoding, and introducing the child to encoding

Picture/video of child

What We Learned Cont’d

• Make just one page around a favourite game or story book and begin by using this yourself so your learner can see how encoding works

• We started with two colours• Its the child’s communication system - if

they aren’t grasping encoding quickly, hold back on encoding for now so that their communication remains comfortable

Stage 3 Continued

Stage 3 Continued

• More symbols on the page and more core words

• Introduce a top page • Tamsin is able to use

her communication book to share information

Picture/video of child

What We Learned

• Re-tell strategy a useful way of practising the vocabulary

• An expectant pause can be used to encourage the child to join in

• Scribbling (see Karen Erickson’s work re. emergent writing)

Picture/video of child

Stage 4

Stage 4

Stage Four

• Core vocabulary now fills a whole page, but some core can be seen from every topic page

• Core vocabulary includes ‘question’ and some early describing words

What We Learned

• Changing role of communication partner

• Notice how Tamsin’s mum is beginning to challenge her a little e.g. what shall we do about it, would you like to ask me something, how can you ask me that

• Also notice that they are just using the core vocabulary to support the activity

• Eventually Tamsin does say ‘question’ ‘more’ to ask for some more

Picture/video of child

What We Learned

• Play may change so that it can tell more of a story e.g. safari park, doll’s house, cooking sets, etc.

• With the move to more vocabulary on a page, the learner needs to be given more looking time

• Also, as the play becomes more challenging, more thinking time may be required

Stage 5

Stage 5

Stage 5

• Now full range of question words

• Also words for working alongside peers e.g. idea, fair, etc.

• Bliss type strategies now on every topic page – combine, part of and opposite to

• We introduced these through games

• 8 blocks of 8 symbols on a page

Stage 5

• Sophie uses her communication book to support her homework

• Task: write a story about someone that had inspired them

• Mum selected vocab around the story

• Sophie used it in her own way to tell a story, adding in hands and legs

• Mum then reads aloud Sophie’s story

Picture/video of child

What We Learned

• A dedicated page of verbs felt important at this stage

• Communication partner’s role different again – big job holding the conversation together e.g. Sophie’s mum sometimes wrote it down to avoid losing thread

• But still a role for pause, watch and respond• Having a lot of vocabulary on one page does

reduce the number of page turns but it makes it harder to read the eye-pointing, and ‘which colour’ does get asked a bit!

Bridge to Stage 5

Bridge to Stage 5

• Tamsin became ready for some of the Stage 5 vocabulary but Tamsin and her family weren’t ready to move on to the Stage 5 page layouts

• Pros and cons

Practicalities

Changes to the Folder

• As it got fuller things started to go wrong!

• Easel files are commercially available, but are designed to hold a small number of sheets of paper

• Fine for getting started but we found that regular replacements were required

Picture/video of child

New Folder

• Designed to hold more pages, to be more durable, and to be more sturdy

On reflection

On Reflection

• Taking the pressure off in the early stages is absolutely vital

• The communication partner’s role needs to develop and change across the stages

• Families liked seeing all five stages• All families said felt would have struggled without

demonstrations (DVD)• Siblings – someone to play with, someone to talk about,

someone easy and fun to talk with, the younger the better

• Timing is important e.g. health issues, other life issues• Must not see it as a failure if symbol communication

doesn’t ‘take off’ at any given time

Talk Together

Talk Together

• A complementary vocabulary package

• Full of tips and suggestions drawn in part from Look2Talk

Contact Details

Katharine Buckley

buckley@ace-centre.org.uk

01865 759 820

www.ace-centre.org.uk