Lego Play Suggestions
by Kathryn Wise
Legos, Ouch!
We know what you are thinking! Those tiny little blocks scattered along the floor and you accidentally step on them! But, did you know Legos are one of the most versatile play objects and offer a ton of developmental opportunities! Legos can help children follow directions, collaborate with others, and use their imagination! During this period of time at home, we would like to highlight some strategies to make the most out of your Lego experience!Hand Skills:
The fine motor benefits from Lego help develop the detail movements of the hand This may include overall strengthening and the ability to manipulate and control various objects and tools.Bilateral Coordination:
Legos require us to use both sides of our body. These skills are needed for such things as eating and dressing. Legos allow us to automatically use both sides of our body while doing something fun!Sensory Skills:
Legos come in all shapes, sizes, and colours. Children are required to use their tactile perception and discriminate in order to proper place the lego. Children require visual processing to find and match colours, shapes and pictures of the models.
We know what you are thinking! Those tiny little blocks scattered along the floor and you accidentally step on them! But, did you know Legos are one of the most versatile play objects and offer a ton of developmental opportunities! Legos can help children follow directions, collaborate with others, and use their imagination! During this period of time at home, we would like to highlight some strategies to make the most out of your Lego experience!Hand Skills:
The fine motor benefits from Lego help develop the detail movements of the hand This may include overall strengthening and the ability to manipulate and control various objects and tools.Bilateral Coordination:
Legos require us to use both sides of our body. These skills are needed for such things as eating and dressing. Legos allow us to automatically use both sides of our body while doing something fun!Sensory Skills:
Legos come in all shapes, sizes, and colours. Children are required to use their tactile perception and discriminate in order to proper place the lego. Children require visual processing to find and match colours, shapes and pictures of the models.
Some tips and strategies:
- Put your Lego on a fitted sheet on the floor. Encourage your children to lay on their stomachs while playing. This helps to work on overall postural control while playing something fun! The clean up is the easy part – just gather the fitted sheet and put back in a large box!
- If you are using models – consider re-writing some of the instructions for your children. If they need help putting together a large model – work backwards. First put it together and then give the child the directions for the last step, then the last two steps, then the last three steps etc. This will give your child a sense of mastery and accomplishment!
- Play a game – put some scenarios in a hat and have your child pick one to create. This may include “Spiderman’s room” or a “kitchen”. This is an opportunity for children to use their imagination to create a scene and not necessarily follow directions. This is a nice example of free play – it can be overwhelming for some children so you may want to sit with them to initiate the activity.
- Sort your legos by colors putting each color in its own bin. Have your child help to sort them once they are finished playing. This is a great opportunity to work on sorting, color recognition, sequencing, and more!
Here is one of our clinics favorite Lego set’s. We are able to adapt it for kids of varying ages despite it being a rather simple set. For older kids we may put the pieces in various steps of an obstacle course or we may have them describe the piece they need, practicing using descriptive language.
