Lego Therapy: Incorporating Social Skills Through Play
Social skills and participation is something that can be difficult to address in one-on-one therapy sessions, but is a critical skill to teach when working with children. This is especially relevant for those children who are autistic. Lego Therapy and play-based clubs are a great way to incorporate teaching social skills.
One of the summer programs that EJ is offering this year addresses social skills where children will learn skills such as turn-taking, peer interactions, being a good sport, and whole-body listening. Although the summer program is still in development, this article summaries some of the key benefits and considerations to play-based group therapy, such as Lego Therapy.
What is Lego Therapy?
Lego Therapy uses Legos to teach those children with social communication difficulties or autism how to develop crucial social skills. This therapy technique relies on the children’s common interests of Legos to teach skills such as “like turn-taking, sharing, listening, conversation, teamwork, shared attention and problem-solving.”1
The children are split up into groups and take turns partaking in different roles such as an engineer, supplier, builder, and foreman. They have to work together to build their Lego set, and take turns in different roles. This format encourages communication, turn-taking, and problem-solving to come to a mutual goal.
Lego Therapy Case Study Findings
The AOTA article titled “Building Blocks for Social Participation: Fostering Friendship and Collaboration Through Play-Based Clubs” details the effectiveness of pilot study focused on Lego Therapy.
The sessions were most effective when the children’s basic needs were met prior to starting the session. This meant that a 90-minute session was broken down to include a warm-up activity and snack that lasted 20 minutes, and this greatly helped with the attention span of the kids, especially those with busy schedules ahead of coming to the program. For those children that still struggled keeping their attention, more free-play breaks were included throughout the session.
The study found that it was important to accommodate for some of the individual needs such as sensory sensitivities, social anxiety, executive functioning and visual perception deficits, and challenging behavior in the group. These accommodations included different seating options such as floor mats and beanbags, providing sensory toys, verbal and visual cues and communication tools, a plan for overwhelm, positive reinforcement strategies, etc. For example, those children with extreme social anxiety may benefit from one-on-one instruction with a therapist at first, and then introduced to a younger peer group.
These findings and considerations are relevant not only to Lego Therapy, but any play-based group therapy such as EJ’s summer programs.
-
1. “Lego Therapy,” raisingchildren.net.au, March 15, 2021, https://raisingchildren.net.au/autism/therapies-guide/lego-therapy.
-
“Lego Therapy,” raisingchildren.net.au, March 15, 2021, https://raisingchildren.net.au/autism/therapies-guide/lego-therapy.
Matthews, Aubrey, Eriana Buteau, and Andrea Fairman. “Building Blocks for Social Participation: Fostering Friendship and Collaboration Through Play-Based Clubs,” AOTA. 2021, Building Blocks for Social Participation: Fostering Friendship and Collaboration Through Play-Based Clubs | AOTA.