1. Kerry Bray, Speech & Language Therapist
Lego Therapy
Or “Building Club”
Building Club – We called our group Building Club to ensure that we were able to adopt the principles of Lego Therapy but at the same time was not limited to using only that resource e.g. Marble run, Duplo, Puzzles.
Kerry Bray, Speech & Language Therapist

2. What is Lego Therapy?
Lego Therapy involves incorporating children’s natural interests as part of the therapy approach
It uses highly structured, predictable and systematic toys i.e. Lego (Baron-Cohen 2002, 2006; Baron Cohen et al, 2003).
It promotes the use of a naturalistic approach in order to improve generalisation (Delprato, 2001; Kohler et al, 1997).

3. Aims of Lego Therapy
To provide opportunities for pupils to communicate and interact with peers at a similar developmental level.
To develop social interaction skills using motivating group activities, facilitated by adults.
To develop shared attention, turn taking, negotiation and problem solving skills, appropriate to the pupil’s developmental level.

4. How it works…
1. Engineer
Reads the plan & gives the instructions to the supplier
2. Supplier
Listens & finds the correct pieces
3. Builder
Reads the plan & puts the pieces together to
create the model.
Group consists of 3 pupils; Each pupil has an individual role assigned to them.

5. Group Structure Each session begins with discussion of rules & roles
Pupils to carry out mins in each role before rotating
Pupils have opportunity to co-operatively play with the model for the last mins of session
Everyone wants to be the builder! Same structure every time is important.

6. Role of the Adult
To act as a facilitator and encourage the pupils to solve their own problems and teach them strategies.
Provide good language model
To support understanding of vocabulary and expressive language
To provide positive reinforcement
3. Support rec/ expr using topic boards or PECS; 4. of comm and social interaction/ play skills with peers – needs to be specific!

7. Setting targets
Why?
To ensure the groups are effective - children are achieving
To show that the children are improving (or not!) in specific skills
Adapt activities so that they are easier or harder; may change children in grp if they are at different levels of cognitive and/ or social competence

8. SMART TARGETS Specific Measurable Achievable Realistic Time measured
S = states precisely e.g. will look at peer with prompts?; M = “will improve”5 X; A =within time frame with those resources; R = within pupil’s capability w/in time frame?; TM = by when? Otherwise may have improved spontaneously/

9. Social skills to target
Body language
Social Interaction
Verbal Interaction
Other
Eye contact
Facial expressions
Gestures
Distance
Touch
Fidgeting
Posture
Shared attention
Sharing motivating items
Taking turns
Working collaboratively
Listening
Gaining someone’s attention
Giving instructions
Clarifying an instruction
Verbal turn taking
Responding to a peer
Asking questions
Being relevant
Making comments
Maintaining attention throughout session
Requesting help
Maintaining role
Clarity of speech (intelligibility/ volume/ rate/ fluency)
Example of target: To be able to wait for his turn during a motivating activity with no more than 2 adult visual/verbal prompts per session.
To be able to give an instruction containing 2 key words to another member of the group. e.g. ‘pass me the small red brick please’ with visual support as necessary for 80% of the sessions throughout the term.

10. Efficacy Evidence
LeGoff (2004) – reported that 24 weeks of Lego Therapy (90 minute group sessions; 1 hour individual session per week) significantly improved social competence (self initiated social contact, duration of social contact and reductions in stereotypical behaviour) in 47 children with Autism.
LeGoff (2004) stated that generalisation had occurred in other social contexts as a result of the Lego Therapy reporting an increase in initiating social contacts and the duration of such interactions in the school playground.
Efficacy Evidence – What the literature tells us about the effectiveness of using Lego Therapy for children with ASD

11. Interesting Findings
LeGoff and Sherman’s (2006) study suggested the outcome was not impacted by diagnosis, i.e. individuals with Aspergers Syndrome, PDD, Autistic Spectrum Disorder all benefitted from the approach
Lego Therapy is more effective with children who have relatively intact language abilities

12. Planning Select pupils according to criteria 2. Purchase resources
3. Make resources e.g. visual symbols, role cards, student rating scale, adapted Building club Rules
4. Share information re Lego therapy with staff
1. Who will benefit? Match in grps of 3 acc to cognitive and comm ability 5. Need to compare with post-group questionnaire

13. Planning 2
6. Contact parents providing info about the group, ask them to complete a baseline questionnaire relating to pupils’ social skills at home & obtain consent for videoing
Ask staff to complete a baseline questionnaire
8. Take baseline videos of 1st groups

14. Next Steps… Pilot 4 groups of pupils over Autumn Term
Evaluate through outcome evaluation forms from staff & parents
Evaluate through comparing social skills abilities in baseline and final videos of sessions as well as achievement of targets
Evaluate these groups at half term and see if capacity for more

15. Any Questions