Does your child need support with listening skills, turn taking, joint attention, resilience, patience, perseverance and problem solving?
Does your child like playing with Lego?
Lego therapy may just be the activity that you are looking for. Lego-based therapy is an evidence based approach that aims to develop social communication skills in autistic children, such as sharing, turn-taking, following rules, using names and problem-solving.
Where does it come from?
Lego therapy was developed in the early 2000s by Dan LeGoff, a clinical neuropsychologist in Philadelphia in the United States.
LeGoff noticed that many autistic children were more interested in interacting with each other if they were playing with Lego. He set up groups for autistic children to learn social skills while playing collaboratively with Lego.
How does it work?
In groups of three, this could be Mum, Dad, sibling or 3 friends or even grandparents. Decided what role you are going to take. The role will change each time you start a new model, so the children learn/understand what is needed for each role. Find a simple model to make. You can even make your own model and photograph this to use as the instructions. Depending on your child’s ability, start with a few steps and work up to more.
Before the activity starts, go through the rules and what is expected. For example each person carries out their role, take turns, listen, ask for help if needed etc.
1st role- Engineer – the Engineer holds the visual building instructions. The Engineer is required to instruct the Supplier to find bricks, then tells the Builder how to put the bricks together. The Engineer must use verbal instructions rather than pointing to the visual instructions.
2nd role – Supplier – the Supplier picks out the bricks from the box of Lego and passes the bricks to the Builder when instructed by the Engineer.
3rd role – Builder – the Builder receives the bricks from the Supplier, and places on the model when instructed by the Engineer.
Carry on until the model is complete – children will use the language –colours, next to, under, on top, small, big etc.
By the end of the session, you should have a model that you can all say you made together.
What are the benefits of LEGO-Based Therapy?
Playing with LEGO promotes social interaction, turn-taking skills, sharing, collaborative problem-solving and the learning of concepts. It can be used to target goals around social skills, language and motor skills.
Would like more information?
Lego Based Therapy (youtube.com)
Using Lego therapy with autistic pupils (autism.org.uk)
What is Lego Therapy? (youtube.com)
What’s On | Suffolk Libraries– Free Lego clubs at many Suffolk Libraries
HAPPY BUILDING
