Lego Games Help Young Children with Autism Develop Social Skills

Abstract

<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: 宋体; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="EN-US">This article aims to introduce how Lego project can help young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) improve social interaction and language skills and reduce challenging behaviors. A case study of a preschooler named Adam with mild ASD characteristics such as language delays, behavioral problems and lack of social interaction was introduced, followed by a detailed narration of the intervention sessions using Lego games. A series of self-developed observation checklists were used to monitor Adam&rsquo;s social emotional development, language development, challenging behaviors as well as fine motor skill development. After three Lego-intervention sessions Adam increases his social interactions with peers, has more eye contact, starts to share materials with his friends, expresses his interest in playing with peers, and improves his verbal communication ability. Besides Lego game, other constructive play materials also can be used to improve Adam and other young children&rsquo;s with ASD language skills and social competence. The Lego-intervention therapy is also beneficial to typically developing peers in that it can help the development of imagination, creativity and team work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></span

Mining for Social Skills: Minecraft in Home and Therapy for Neurodiverse Youth

“…While not technically a game, LEGO building toys were mentioned often during interviews, and have also been studied in autism literature [19]. There are obvious comparisons to Minecraft, as both allow for creative building.…”

“…Therapists have a history of using games and toys as the focus of interventions and therapy for ND children [17,19], so the use of electronic games seems a natural extension. Games designed to promote education skills, like math, are commonly used to supplement educational curriculum.…”

LEGO® therapy as an intervention in autism spectrum disorders: an integrative literature review

“…In the case study published by Pang 21 an individual, diagnosed with mild ASD, performed LEGO ® therapy in a school setting. After 3 months of intervention the subject acquired new communicative skills and vocabulary repertoire, and began to produce simple phrases.…”

“…Notably, in the selected articles the sample size varied from case studies with only one participant 21 to interventions with 60 individuals 15 . The number of sessions required for meaningful results was not always recorded 17 , which may have had a negative influence on the data obtained 2,17 .…”

Testing the parent-child communication program: Its effectiveness on developing children’s social competences

“…Various efforts are made to stimulate the development of children's social competence, one of which is by giving rewards in the form of praise, star symbol, or toy that can effectively improve children's prosocial behavior, which is, one of the indicators of social competences (Fabes, Fultz, Eisenberg, May-Plumlee, & Christopher, 1989). Besides, storytelling activities (Mincic, 2007), video games (Greitemeyer & Osswald, 2010), and lego games (Pang, 2010) are also proven to be an alternative to improve children's social competence. This form of stimulation is inseparable from the participation of parents and teachers to direct the children in developing their social competence, as evidenced by the research conducted by Berns (1997) that presents the involvement of teachers and parents as one of the successes of school programs.…”