Further Information

Developed by Daniel B. LeGoff, LEGO-Based Therapy is a social development program which provides effective social development intervention to children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and other conditions effecting social skills. It is evidence based, meaning it has been studied and recreated successfully by other professionals. 

The program involves participants taking on roles specific to building a LEGO set. These roles include the Engineer, the Supplier and the Builder. Each role has specific tasks they need to do to help the group. The group must work together to achieve the build. Social skills are explored while the group together builds the set of their choice. Motivation is high due to the interest LEGO holds for the participants.

Participants for a LEGO group are very carefully matched according to their interests, existing skills, and groups  have 2 or 3 participants only. This supports a successful group dynamic, and sometimes can take a bit of time to find the right match between participants.

Due to The Playful Place Therapists being registered health professionals, and having extensive group theory experience and training, other techniques that relate to supporting people are applied within the group such as predictable routines, visual supports, sensory modulation, and a low arousal environment. This adds to the depth of the therapy provided for your family, and the success and outcomes for the group who participate in LEGO therapy at The Playful Place. 

Although there may be options to engage in a short LEGO therapy group for 4-6 weeks, the research is very clear, that the greatest results from the program come after 2 terms of consistent therapy. 

Emotional regulation, the ability to manage ones emotions appropriate to the situation, is an ongoing process that takes years to master, and the skills can come and go depending on what else is happening for the person. Managing our emotions is a developmental process, meaning the skills typically build sequentially over time alongside our other development. Emotions which can often be difficult to understand and regulate include anger and anxiety. Anxiety and anger are becoming more and more common in children, and can become disruptive for the child's self esteem, social relationships, play success and ongoing holistic development. 

Neuro-typical children need caring support to develop these skills, and neuro-diverse children such as those with ASD or ADHD  often need extra caring support and understanding of their individual needs. Emotions can be scary if we don't understand them, or when they are out of control. Once we can name them, understand them, and know where they come from, then we can begin to regulate them.   

At The Playful Place we have spent years researching and developing a structured program to teach children a simple and effective way to understand their emotions. We start by simplifying emotions through learning that common emotions can fit into 6 categories. The 6 basic emotions can be big or small or somewhere in the middle. We then learn about the individual emotion scales, and one emotion at a time, we explore deeper the different words used for these emotions, what they feel like in our body, what they look like in ourselves and in others, and even have fun exploring what they can sound like. From here, we can start to learn to manage our emotions, using cognitive strategies, sensory strategies and social strategies. 

We have 8 sensory systems which take in sensory information: 5 external senses, and 3 internal senses. Sensory processing is how we receive that information, understand that information and how we respond to that information.

We can be over-responsive to sensory information, or under-responsive to sensory information. 

Over- responsive is also known as hyper-sensitive. This is when a little bit of sensory information feels like a lot - level 5 volume feels like level 10, spinning 3 times makes us dizzy.

Under-responsive is also known as hypo-sensitive. This is when a lot of information feels like not much - level 5 volume feels like level 2, spinning 30 times feels fine! 

• 5 External Environmental Senses: 

1. Tactile/touch - sense of touch. 
2. Taste - sense of taste.
3. Smell - sense of smell.
4. Vision - sense of sight and visual movement.
5. Auditory - sense of hearing.

• 3 Internal Body Senses:

1. Vestibular - sense of movement through space and gravity. Receptors are in our ears. This sense is how you know if you are moving forwards or backwards, going up or down in an elevator, and has a lot to do with our balance, posture and feelings of anxiety. 
2. Proprioception - sense of where your body is in space - how you know to move without looking - holding up 2 fingers behind your back, throwing a ball accurately. Proprioceptive input through squeezing or acting on our muscles helps us feel safe and secure.
3. Interoception - your sense of your internal organs - our bladder when it's full, our tummy when its empty, our heart when it races or skips a beat. It can be hard to regulate our emotions like anger if we don't 'feel' the sensations building in our body.