LEGO® - Based Therapy Clinical Research Findings
yNOTPlay Play Therapy
Building an Inclusive and Caring Society：
Effectiveness of Play Therapy for Children with Special Educational Needs
This research program has been implemented in October 2021 for 2.5 years. yNOTplay has collaborated with Dr. Low Yiu Tsang at Saint Francis University to conduct research on the effectiveness of play therapy for children with special educational needs. The program sponsored by the Family Compass Charitable Foundation and Advance Children Medical And Education Foundation Limited, is underpinned by Child-Centered Play Therapy. The play therapists of yNOTplay utilize the EMOplay® Therapy tools during individual play therapy sessions to specifically target and improve emotional and behavioral issues among children. Following individual play therapy, children participate in AutPlay® Therapy and LEGO® Brick Based Therapy social groups tailored for special educational needs to enhance positive social communication skills. The research results showed that the total difficulties of children in behavioral improved statistically significantly after individual play therapy and after group play therapy. Social skills, emotions and behavior improvements were also observed after completing therapy with statistically significant differences.
yNOTPlay Play Therapy
Lego®- Based Therapy Children Social Communication Program
In 2018, in cooperation with Dr. Andrew Low Yiu Tsang at City University of Hong Kong, Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, and with the assistance from Dr. Gina Gómez de la Cuesta at Play Included C.I.C., yNOTplay Play Therapy Social Enterprise with its three recognized LEGO®-Based Therapy facilitators organized the first research program on the effectiveness of LEGO®-Based Therapy for 9 autistic children at the age of 6-9 in Hong Kong, namely “Magic BRICKS Club Social Program”. The result shows that social behaviors of the children were improved significantly after attending the 10 sessions, which is a statistically significant difference; particularly in the peer problem and conduct problem aspects. In view of the social ability, the result though did not show a statistically significant difference upon completion of the program, there were signs of positive changes in the children’s social behaviors after the treatment in 6 children.
Press Release: First Joint Research by City University of Hong Kong and Play Included C.I.C. shows LEGO®-Based Therapy Effective in Improving Social Behaviors of Autistic Children
Research Result Presented by Dr. Andrew Low, City University of Hong Kong on July 9, 2019
Licensed Trainers and Dr. Andrew Low, City University of Hong Kong
Dr. Gina Gomez de la Cuesta, Founder and Director of Bricks for Autism C.I.C (Renamed as Play Included C.I.C.) and Clinical Psychologist
The first to bring LEGO®-Based Therapy to United Kingdom and to use this model to help the people in need at the Cambridge University’s Autism Research Centre. Researches are still undergoing at present.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-008-0590-6
Dr. Dan B. Legoff, Clinical Neuropsychologist in Philadelphia U.S.A
Dr. Legoff conducted a research in LEGO®-Based Therapy 2004, and also published a 3-year study in 2006. These 2 reports show that LEGO®-Based Therapy has a positive effect on social communications skills on the children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder or Social Communication Disorder. They become more active through participating in this collaborative game.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10803-004-2550-0
Dr. Dan.B. Legoff discovered it is effective for the children to learn social communication skills from structured play with their interest; skills such as eye-contacts, turn-taking, verbal and non-verbal communications, sharing, following social rules, greetings by names, group problem-solving, etc.
Legoff, DB (2004). Use of LEGO® as a Therapeutic Medium for Improving Social Competence. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34(5), 557-571. doi:10.1007/s10803-004-2550-0
In a three-year study, Dr. Dan.B. Legoff compared outcomes of traditional interventions with LEGO®-Based Therapy. The study found those who participated in the LEGO®-Based Therapy improved significantly more than the traditional interventions. Hence, the skills children gained from the LEGO®-Based Therapy not only remain in the play room, but can also appliy in their daily social interactions：
Legoff, D. B., & Sherman, M. (2006). Long-term outcome of social skills intervention based on interactive LEGO® play. Autism,10(4), 317-329. doi:10.1177/1362361306064403
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16908476
