Do you know about LEGO Therapy? Analysis of Lego play that helps develop social skills!
Min Jung Kwon
Hello, this is Hyeji Park from BCBA. These days, there is a lot of interest in coding-related programs such as Lego. Today, we will talk about “Could You Give Me the Blue Brick?” related to the Lego program. I would like to introduce the paper titled “LEGO®-Based Therapy as a Social Development Program.” This paper examines how LEGO-based therapy affects the social development of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Autism spectrum disorder and social skills
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) involves a variety of difficulties, including social communication, restricted interests, and repetitive behaviors. Because these difficulties have a significant impact on children's social participation and quality of life, effective social development programs are needed.
What is Lego Therapy?
Lego Therapy is a program developed to promote social interaction and cooperative play in children with ASD. First developed by LeGoff in 2004, the program is said to help children acquire social skills in a natural environment.
Lego Therapy revolves around three roles: engineer, supplier and builder.
Engineer
Engineers are responsible for the design of the entire Lego structure and direct the assembly process. Clear communication is important as it explains to suppliers and architects what blocks are needed and how to assemble them.
Supplier
The supplier is responsible for finding the Lego bricks needed and delivering them to the architect. Since you have to find the blocks that the engineer tells you to, you need the ability to listen carefully to what the engineer says and navigate to the blocks you need.
Architect
Architects are responsible for assembling Lego structures themselves using blocks provided by suppliers. Since you must assemble the blocks according to the engineer's instructions using the received blocks, you must pay attention to the details of the instructions and put them into action.
Because each role requires cooperation, communication and interdependence, children naturally develop social skills.
How does Lego Therapy work?
According to this study, Lego Therapy is an effective program that supports the social development of children with ASD and helps children naturally acquire social skills through play. By acquiring these social skills, children are effective in making friends without much difficulty and improving social interaction through cooperative play. Therefore, it is said to improve children's quality of life and enable better social participation later in life.
Limitations of the Study
- Small sample size: This study was conducted with a small number of participants, making it difficult to generalize the results. Because of this, the possibility of bias cannot be ruled out.
- Diversity of research design: It is said that there were difficulties in comparing research results due to differences in research methods and result evaluation methods.
- Long-term effects: It is difficult to verify long-term effects due to the lack of research on Lego Therapy.
Despite these limitations, Lego Therapy represents a beneficial program for the social development of children with ASD. Of course, more research is needed, but the results so far are very positive.
In this way, we were able to see that Lego not only expands children's play, but also helps develop social skills. How about taking some time today to create various Lego structures with your child?
If you would like to find out more details, please check the paper below.
- Gallo-Lopez, L., & Rubin, L. (2023). Could You Give Me the Blue Brick? LEGO®-Based Therapy as a Social Development Program for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review. Brain Sciences .
thank you