The versatility of Lego never fails to amaze me, that and the fact that it is seems to appear in all aspects of my life…
With a husband who does stop motion animation, creating Brick Films with minifigures and two children who just love Lego, I expect it to be a regular feature of my home life but imagine my surprise when I arrived at work this morning to be told I was being given training in ‘Lego therapy’.
My job as a learning support assistant see’s me helping young children with a variety of needs but a common feature of my job involves promoting social skills. Helping children to share, cooperate and communicate effectively are essential skills and its fantastic that lego can be used for this purpose.
Working in groups of 3 or 4 the children are assigned the different jobs of Engineer, Supplier, Builder or Supervisor and are encouraged to work together and communicate in creating a set piece, requiring them to use skills such as descriptive language, patience, sharing and listening. We tried it and these skills are a lot harder to use than I realised but it is also a lot of fun.
Lego Therapy is growing in popularity, with many books available on the subject and I have seen and heard much evidence of that in my work place over previous years. I am really looking forward to experiencing the benefits of Lego therapy in future groups I am working with.
May the uses for Lego continue to grow.
By Toni Husbands
(Toni is a Social & Emotional Healthworker, has nearly completed a Bsc Honours in Psychology and has recently undertaken a diploma in Art Therapy.)
