Look how well they are getting along; but it’s just a box of Lego®!

We all have a building story; the grand design of creating our own miniature house or the momentary glow of success on discovering the extra set of wheels which completes our innovative vehicle design. Sometimes though, the magic of that box of bricks can have the potential for so much more.

Lego® therapy has been around for a while now. Daniel LeGoff and later Dr Gina Gómez de la Cuesta and Simon Baron-Cohen from the Autism Research Centre, Cambridge,  have shown that within a more structured environment, the use of building blocks and sets can be utilised to improve the social and communication skills of young people with Autism. Recently more and more educational, health and social care settings are realising the benefits of this great programme. Just this week, there’s been news of a special school in Blackpool setting up an after school club.

Using it in a number of settings over the years has been interesting and inspiring. Whether as a one-to-one session to teach and build confidence in social communication, or as a whole class tool to encourage speaking and listening in a literacy lesson, this structured use of model building has had the ability to unlock potential in many young people who prefer a more logical approach to collaborative play.

For the ‘logical thinker’, many aspects of social interaction and communication are strange. ‘To hug or not to hug……..’ This is actually the question. Take a moment to consider what the ‘rules’ are around hugging. Do we hug everyone we know? Do we hug all our friends? Do we sometimes hug in certain places but not others? This single area of socially acceptable behaviour presents one with the prospect of crossing a social minefield. It is just one area of social etiquette which, as a ‘social thinker’ we (usually) successfully navigate, managing to avoid any major explosions. The logical ones amongst us, however, find themselves blundering wildly through; desperately attempting to avoid mistimed contact, awkward polite back pats and the painful minutes entangled in the unanticipated, uninvited clutches of a well-meaning associate.

The activities within the book ‘Building Blocks for Communication’ have been developed with the logical thinker in mind, although all thinking types will no doubt benefit. They have been developed and tried and tested through close work in a number of settings with some incredible people. Used in mainstream classes, Nurture Groups, by Family Support Practitioners and parents at home, and also, with careful planning, in social communication intervention groups, these activities have been designed to be adaptable for many ages and abilities.

The training courses running alongside the publication often produce many more ideas for new and innovative activities. So, get your logical thinking caps on, get out that box of bricks and start presenting abstract concepts in a more structured way! 

Amy Eleftheriades, Alpha Inclusion.
Speechmark author of ‘Building Blocks for Communication’