Construction Club: Building social interaction skills with LEGO® therapy
Construction Club is a social skills group, where children take part in LEGO®-based therapy. This is a social skills programme based around building LEGO® models in small groups. The approach was developed by Dr Dan LeGoff, a Clinical Neuropsychologist from Philadelphia, USA. The aim of the group is to help children to develop social interaction skills in a friendly, fun setting.
What do children do in Construction Club?
Construction Club sessions are usually one hour long, during which children build LEGO® models in groups of two or three, with adult support.
One child finds the bricks (the ‘supplier’), another has the instructions (the ‘engineer’) and a third child puts the model together (the ‘builder’). Children take it in turns to play the different roles. Other activities include building models more creatively, without instructions in pairs or small groups.
The adult running the group supports children to solve any social difficulties that might arise. If there is a problem, e.g. one child snatches a brick, everyone stops building, sorts out the problem together, and practices an alternative strategy, e.g. asking for the brick first.
What skills are practiced in Construction Club?
Social interaction skills such as shared enjoyment, taking turns, listening, sharing, working towards a joint goal, problem solving, compromise and communication – verbal and non-verbal – are all key elements of the LEGO®-based therapy approach used in Construction Club.
LEGO®-based therapy also helps to develop fine motor skills. LEGO® comes in a variety of different shapes and sizes which children need to assemble and take apart. These small movements of the hands and fingers support the development of hand and finger strength and promote fine motor coordination required for handwriting, dressing and crafts.
I have completed training to enable me to run LEGO®-based therapy groups. Occupational therapists are experts in task analysis; breaking skills and tasks down into small, manageable, teachable components. This enables LEGO® to be graded appropriately to an individual’s ability level, allowing skills to be taught in a structured and systematic fashion. Sessions are adapted so that LEGO® activities carried out are suitable for the ability and skills of individual children