LEGO Artists and Engineers -- Inspiration

What do people find inspiring about LEGO(R)?
What motivates new LEGO(R) discoveries?

  

"Lego Hero Factory" by zigazou76 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

What's Happening in Ipswich City (Australia)?

Ipswich Libraries ran virtual LEGO(R) Engineer Workshops, each week in October, 2021. The events were run through Zoom video-conferencing. This allowed people to participate, regardless of whether they can travel to the library space, or not. The activity was suitable during COVID lockdowns and had potential to involve the whole family.

A Design Challenge was launched to build projects--house, plane, boat, or car with LEGO(R) Digital Designer in the library Maker Space. This option of digital design, rather than hands-on building, is an innovative concept for many people. The designs may be 3D printed with equipment in the Maker Spaces.

How is digital design useful? This allows individuals that lack the fine motor skill to build their model, to design and produce creatively. Participants gather socially to explore digital LEGO(R) design in Maker Spaces in Ipswich libraries. This brings people together with shared interests and provides opportunities for learning and skills development. 

The digital design process is creative and sometimes collaborative. Simple and complex problems are generated; ideas are tested as people build on other's designs.  LEGO(R) invites participation across the life span because it is widely available in homes, schools, and communities. Maker Spaces form a sub-culture within society of people with an interest in LEGO(R) design.

Therapy application -- Ecological Model of Autism

My interest is to explore model-making with LEGO(R), in collaboration with autistic people. LEGO(R) can be used to represent factors in the Person-Environment-Occupation Model that is commonly used by Occupational Therapists to support people's occupational performance. The P-E-O Model is a socio-ecological approach--which explores how the environment impacts on people's performance over time. 

Danforth (2013, p. 42), explains: 

‘The ecological model of autism studies the behaviour of individuals with autism within the context of many levels of environmental influence and assumes bidirectional influences between (a) the person and these environmental influences and (b) the many environmental levels. Context refers to the wide range of system levels that influence individuals with autism, including the immediate responses of caregivers and family, school, local community, as well as broader cultural, economic, and political practices. Some variables have a direct immediate impact, and some more distal variables have an indirect impact. With the ecological model, the appropriate unit of study is the interaction of the environment and individual, the organism-environment system; “autism is not a static condition existing within a person, but a developmental process that can only be understood as taking place through the interaction of person and environment” (Loveland, 2001, p. 22).’

LEGO(R) is used in science, technology, creative arts, and educational applications. The research literature on the therapeutic use of LEGO with autistic individuals is very scant. Therefore, the use of LEGO(R) by the occupational therapist is innovative in applying principles from Occupational Therapy models to LEGO(R) construction. The Person-Environment-Occupation Model is commonly used by occupational therapists to assist individuals to adapt to the interplay between the physical and social environment, and to maximise their occupational performance.  

LEGO(R) has been used to help under-graduate students to understand concepts of resilience (Quinn & Quinn, 2016). It is hoped that the use of LEGO(R) in Maker Spaces and therapy sessions will be enjoyed by all participants.  LEGO(R) spans generational age gaps and is often accepted by teenagers and young people. The whole family is encouraged to join in with LEGO(R) design, model-making and application of therapeutic concepts to daily life circumstances.

The book: How LEGO(R)-Based Therapy for Autism Works, by Daniel LeGoff, (2017), contains case studies of children who participated in LEGO(R) therapy sessions. This shows applications for individual needs and interests.

This blog introduces concepts of using LEGO(R) for innovative therapeutic applications. I'm interested to learn more about how people enjoy the virtual workshops, digital design opportunities, and 3-D printing in Ipswich and other libraries / maker spaces.

If you would like support to participate in LEGO(R) workshops, please contact Sandra Kirkwood (Occupational Therapist, blog author). Mobile 0488 624 362. 

References

Danforth, G. (2013) Ecological models of autism. In Fred R. Volkmar (Editor), Encyclopedia of autism disorders. p 42. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1698-3_1456

LeGoff, D. (2017) How LEGO(R)-Based Therapy for Autism Works. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Loveland, K. A. (2001). Toward an ecological theory of autism. In J. A. Burack, T. Charman, N. Yirmiya, & P. R. Zelazo (Eds.), The development of autism: Perspectives from theory and research. Lawrence Erlbaum. pp 17-37. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Katherine-Loveland-2/publication/307633500_Toward_an_ecological_theory_of_autism/links/5de5594ea6fdcc2837005957/Toward-an-ecological-theory-of-autism.pdf

Law, M., Cooper, B. A., Strong, S., Stewart, D., Rigby, P., & Letts, L. (1996). The person-environment-occupation model: A transactive approach to occupational performance. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 63, 9-23.

 

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