Compatible with iPhone
and iPod Touch
Look2Learn
The first thing you should know is that the developer of Look2Learn has not updated this app in a very long time. So it may not be compatible with the latest iOS on your device. That's a big problem.
Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! Look2Learn is fabulous and basic. It's easy to use. It does what it says it does and it does it extremely well. That's why I give it five out of five stars. This is essentially PECS for the digital generation. But that's trivializing it, because this is one fantastic little communication app. Comparing Look2Learn to PECS is like comparing the iPhone to an old rotary phone. Need I say more? (And if you're too young to know what a rotary phone is, just picture a brick with a little plastic wheel attached on top.)
If you flip through the screen shots you'll see me adding a custom item - my son's favorite beans and rice from Taco Bell. Those screens are meant to give you an idea of what Look2Learn is able to do from a customization standpoint.
Look2Learn's basic screen is the first of the screen shots you see on the right. Yes, the little cartoon boy with the "I Want!" sign is fully customizable. You can replace him with an image of a young girl, your own child, or any other image you choose. Once you decide on that image, it's set. That doesn't mean you can't change it again, but that your child doesn't manipulate it while using the app. Your child presses the red Select an image bar and decides what he/she wants to request. When they select the image it then replaces the image opposite the cartoon boy. In this case it would replace the hamburger. Touch the cartoon boy and he says, "I Want" slowly and clearly. Then touch the other image (for humor's sake let's say it was a pickle) and the boy says, "Pickle". That's it. That's the whole thing. It's just for helping your child express his/her demands and getting that basic need met. Now go ahead and give your child that pickle he requested!
Your child can easily find a picture of what they want. It's much easier than looking through the pages of a PECS binder. The images are organized nicely, and you can control that also. You can create new categories, hide categories, insert your own pictures, enlarge or reduce the size of the images in the library and more. The default voices sound natural and you can change them to suit your child; boy, girl, man, or woman. If you prefer you can also record your own voice or another child's. You can customize the entire app. The developers wisely put Look2Learn's settings under the device's own settings area so nobody can accidentally make changes. That's foresight!
Possible improvements? First, you cannot create new categories for the images though you can rename and rearrange the default categories. So you're stuck with only 6 categories. Giving us the option to create our own would be nice. I think Look2Learn should include a Mom icon and a Dad icon by default. Children often say, "I want my Mom" (or Dad). But, of course, since this app is fully customizable you can create your own Mom and Dad icons. It'd be nice if the default library of images/icons was larger too and had back buttons further in so a user could back out of a category if they accidentally selected the wrong one, or changed their mind. Someone else mentioned to me that it'd be nice if you could change the default "I Want" to other things like "I See", "I Hear", etc. and I gotta agree with that.
We always want more than what we have. But Look2Learn is a really good AAC app for the child who's developmentally at the stage of beginning to express what they want. Look2Learn will save that child a lot of frustration. And it'll prevent you, the parent, from getting gray hair prematurely!
