For many kids, it isn't always easy to make friends and grow into their own skin. Sometimes they're shy. Sometimes they just don't play well with others. Sometimes they just don't know what to say.
Some therapists and educators are finding that an age-old construction toy is the perfect tool for helping children clear these developmental hurdles. It's made of hard plastic, comes in recognizable primary colours and is common enough that parents everywhere have gotten tired of stepping on little pieces of it in the middle of the night.
Lego bricks have been the building blocks of children's imaginations since 1949, but only recently has scientific and medical research started to point to another higher purpose beyond playtime. Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other social development problems are finding that they are useful tools to help them get through or get over their issues.
According to the website www.asdaid.org, the toys are particularly appropriate for children with social and developmental issues because Lego is "a highly structured, predictable and systematic construction toy" making it beneficial to children with ASD because they are "particularly attracted to systems."
This new form of therapy has seen a recent emergence in St. Albert, one at a school and another in a more formal therapy session. Both have seen the early benefits and the possibilities are promising.
One step at a time
Dyan Eybergen is a registered nurse who has spent the last two years as a local therapist through Coach Apparent Ltd. She focuses on coaching parents who are having difficulties managing the behaviours of their children with mental health disorders and social deficits ranging from basic shyness to ASD to depression to anxiety to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Eybergen discovered that, in addition to the deficit, the children had something else in common.
"When I would ask parents what are their [children's] other strengths – what do they do well at – I was always getting Lego as a response," she said. "They loved to build with Lego. They could stay with Lego for hours and hours."
She discovered that it was actually an established therapy and it has been for more than 15 years. The Center for Neurological and Neurodevelopmental Health in New Jersey offered her a course to become a certified Lego leader.
The centre's website (at www.thecnnh.org) explains that the therapy will increase "self-initiated social contact and the duration of social interaction in other group settings ... and improved social competence in general."
Its aim is to get the children to identify with their peer group and be motivated by social approval and social status within it.
Since March Eybergen has been offering her clients a new program: the Lego Social Skills Group. Every Wednesday evening she has six children – all boys – show up to play and build and grow in supervised and structured two-hour sessions.
Each child is given a duty, such as sorting the bricks or managing the actual construction, all under the guidance of a teenaged helper. Eybergen herself oversees the entire operation, making sure that each child is praised for good behaviours. She also keeps them in check according to a set of 10 rules, such as 'using indoor voices' and 'keep your hands and feet to yourself.'
A lot of the issues for these children have to do with social skills like observing and recognizing other people's facial expressions, adhering to proper etiquette and making eye contact.
This therapy, Eybergen says, has been a positive influence in the children's lives. She doesn't even concentrate on the diagnosis, if there is one; she only focuses on social development.
"One of the things that I've been most proud of in the group is how they have really started to identify with one another and internalize that as being friends," she said. "When they first came in, they were just eager to be on their own and play with Lego. Now, I'm seeing them helping out one another more, encouraging one another."
She has also seen less fidgeting and interrupting in exchange for better eye contact and learning other people's names. If the children act in socially inappropriate ways, they get a chance to self-correct with a do-over. It's working, she says, and the kids always get a sense of accomplishment from finishing a project.
Strong strengths, challenging challenges
Judy Frank agrees. She is the mother of one of the boys in the group. Her son is seven and really smart, she says, but his high energy level leaves him struggling to maintain his attention span. He's also very sensitive and can get upset easily.
"He's scared of almost everything right now. His strengths are really strong and, at the opposite end, his challenges are real challenges," she said.
She said that choosing to send him to Eybergen's sessions was a pretty obvious one.
"This group is good for a lot of reasons, number one: Lego. Could there be a better toy on this planet?" she laughed. "Number two: It gives him practice with his fine motor skills, his spatial reasoning. All of these things inherent in Lego just help him."
Progress is slow, she admitted, but all things considered, she is enthusiastic to keep him going on this track as long as possible.
"Sometimes you'll find a good therapist and think, 'You're never going to retire, are you?'" she said. "We won't leave this group until he doesn't need it any more or [Eybergen] retires."
Elementary club
Last year at Leo Nickerson Elementary School, counsellor Tammy Schepens introduced a new Lego club. It's open to students of all grades, providing them time during lunch recess to experience play without the undue interactions that might occur on the playground.
"Schools can be an ingenious place to actually use things that we've always had, in a way to help diversify options for kids," Schepens said.
The Nickerson club started out primarily for students with social development issues but has evolved into something more than that, and under a different framework than Eybergen's group.
These kids can hang out and nurture new relationships within the safety and comfort of the library. They play with the Lego just as Eybergen's group does, learn about co-operation, communication skills, mediation and empathy too, and have the same level of supervision. They even get titles like VIP, member, administrator and CEO but there's one crucial difference with the structure.
There are no maps, no directions and no instructions. It's purely free-form recreation and they are learning valuable personal and social skills at the same time.
"We've never had an issue. The kids are happy to be there," Schepens said.
"There are no sets – just your imagination. It's phenomenal what they come up with. It's not just about one person achieving a goal; it's about meeting in the middle."
