Lego-Based Therapy In Singapore School And Children With Autism 

Is Lego-Based Therapy popular in Singapore for children with autism? 

Lego-based therapy seems to be more popular in the UK, Canada, Australia, USA and New Zealand. However, a special school in Singapore has conducted a trial on Lego-based therapy for a small group of students. The study was done by Elizabeth Mui Yee Yen & Teo Hui Ru.

Five adolescents completed weekly 1-hour sessions of LEGO® based therapy for 8 weeks. It concluded that the findings indicated improvements in socialization and communication skills in 4 of 5 participants. This study showed the feasibility and effectiveness of implementing LEGO® based therapy groups for social skills interventions for individuals with ASD and MID in a school setting. LEGO® based therapy is a cost efficient and potentially effective intervention method that can be adopted in schools. 

Source: https://www.apsn.org.sg/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/TS-2018_Lego-Study.pdf

There is no lack of evidences to show lego-based therapy offers many benefits to develop various skills for children with learning disabilities (GDD / Autism / Mild Disabilities etc). Perhaps more special schools serving the needs of special needs children in Singapore could introduce Lego-based therapy into the school programs. 

Even, if schools do not conduct Lego-based therapy session, now you can do your own Lego-based therapy sessions at home with all the resources you need provided by the Build2Talk program. For more info go to: www.build2talk.com 

Special Schools In Singapore - Metta School / Pathlight / Katong School / AWWA School/ Rainbow Special School / APSN Chao Yang Special School / Eden School 

Children develop receptive language skill when they listen to instructions from the parent or facilitator on what LEGO piece to use and where to put them during a lego-based therapy building session. The ability to listen and respond to instructions is critical in the learning of new skills. If the child can read, the child can also read out the instruction shown on each step as she put the pieces together.  In the Build2Talk program, the child is allowed to build the LEGO model with visual instruction accompanied by verbal instruction from the parent or facilitator. 

Expressive language skill is developed when the child takes on the role as an engineer and gives out the instruction to the builder on what piece to use and how they should be placed during the model building process. The parent or a sibling can play the role of the builder and let the child be the engineer to give the instructions. 
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Expressive language can also develop when the child ask for help if he or she is not able to find a piece of the brick or to put them together. Each step of the building process offers an opportunity for the parent and child to interact and communicate. 

In the building process, the child also get to be trained on his visual and sequencing skills as he or she is required to follow each step till the model is completed.  

The more than 20 models to be built in this program use the parts from the LEGO Classic Creative Suitcase 10713 set. This set has 200 pieces. This set is chosen because it is cost effective, costing between US$19 to US$25. You be surprised that with a smaller set of just 200 pieces, you can create many unique models. You are recommended to get this set for this program.  

If you own other LEGO Classic Brick sets with more pieces (600, 1500 brick sets) , you may have the pieces needed to build the models in this program but the color of the bricks may differ. Our suggestion is that if you think you have enough LEGO elements, you can sign up for the course and look at the model building instructions in the program before deciding if you need to get the LEGO Classic Creative Suitcase 10713.

The models your child will be building range from cute animals such as bird, turtle, dinosaur,  snake to vehicles such as car, boat and submarine. With some many models to built from one single LEGO set, you are assured that there will be lots of fun!