What Is LEGO-Based Therapy And How Is It Different From The Build2Talk Program?
LEGO® therapy started in 2004 by Daniel B. LeGoff, a clinical Neuropsychologist. He noticed an improvement in social interactions in children with Autism and Neurodevelopmental disorders when engaging with LEGO® in a therapeutic and structured manner.
Research Findings
Research studies have found LEGO® therapy to be an effective means of developing “verbal and non-verbal communication, joint attention and task focus, collaborative problem-solving, sharing and turn-taking” (LeGoff and Sherman, 2006). Another study conducted in 2008 showed that children who participated in LEGO® therapy showed a significant improvement in learning, general social skills and behavior modifications in comparison to a control group who did not receive the specialized LEGO® therapy (Owens, Granader, and Humphrey).
What Does A LEGO-based Therapy Session Look Like?
In the LEGO®-Based Therapy group, children are encouraged to work together by building in a group of three. A typical session is formed with three children and an adult facilitator with the goal to build a LEGO® model. The children are assigned different roles.
One child acts as the ‘‘engineer’’ (describes the instructions), one is the ‘‘supplier’’ (finds the correct pieces) and the other is the ‘‘builder’’ (puts the pieces together based on the verbal instructions given by the 'engineer). Children would play their role for a certain length of time, or a certain number of steps in the instructions and then swap around. This division of labour with a common purpose allows children to practice joint attention, turn taking, sharing, joint problem solving, listening and general social communication skills.
Here is a Video.
Research Findings
Research studies have found LEGO® therapy to be an effective means of developing “verbal and non-verbal communication, joint attention and task focus, collaborative problem-solving, sharing and turn-taking” (LeGoff and Sherman, 2006). Another study conducted in 2008 showed that children who participated in LEGO® therapy showed a significant improvement in learning, general social skills and behavior modifications in comparison to a control group who did not receive the specialized LEGO® therapy (Owens, Granader, and Humphrey).
What Does A LEGO-based Therapy Session Look Like?
In the LEGO®-Based Therapy group, children are encouraged to work together by building in a group of three. A typical session is formed with three children and an adult facilitator with the goal to build a LEGO® model. The children are assigned different roles.
One child acts as the ‘‘engineer’’ (describes the instructions), one is the ‘‘supplier’’ (finds the correct pieces) and the other is the ‘‘builder’’ (puts the pieces together based on the verbal instructions given by the 'engineer). Children would play their role for a certain length of time, or a certain number of steps in the instructions and then swap around. This division of labour with a common purpose allows children to practice joint attention, turn taking, sharing, joint problem solving, listening and general social communication skills.
Here is a Video.
Is the Build2Talk program the same as LEGO-based therapy?
The learning goals of the Build2Talk program is the same as LEGO-based therapy. Similar to LEGO-based therapy, it helps to develop communication skills and other skills but the key difference is that the Build2Talk program is designed to be conducted at home with a parent and child. With the Covid-19 pandemic, you can do LEGO-based therapy safely at home. It does not need to be done in a group setting with other children. It also makes it cost effective as you can build more than 20 models based on ONE SINGLE LEGO set with our program instead of having to buy different LEGO sets for each session. The LEGO models to be built in this program uses the parts from LEGO Classic 11002 Brick set. This set has 300 pieces. It is affordable costing between US$21 to US$28 and is available worldwide.
In the Build2Talk program, the parent plays the role of the facilitator and the engineer. The child is the supplier and builder. If the child is more verbal and older with a good command of expressive language, the parent and child can switch roles, whereby the child can be the engineer and the parent acts as the builder. If there are other siblings at home, the siblings can also join the session.
Our online program saves you time travelling to a LEGO-based therapy group or club and with the Covid-19 pandemic, the Build2Talk program allows you to reap the benefits of LEGO-based therapy and yet be safe at home.
Another key difference is that if the child is non-verbal, the child can still enjoy building the LEGO models with the help of customized building instructions that come with simplified text instructions and visual images. The child can look at the visual and text instructions (or to be read out by the parent/facilitator) and complete building the models. As you may already know, the original LEGO instructions can be complex with just visual diagrams and a few steps are often combined into one visual. You can see samples of our building instruction visuals slides and preview the Build2Talk program by signing up for a FREE preview at https://build2talk.thinkific.com/courses/build2talkprogram.
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FREE preview at: https://build2talk.thinkific.com/courses/legobased-online-training-teacher-resourcepack
