LEGO Based Therapy (LBT) information update from
Dr WG Lockitt – G2G Communities CIC Strategic Policy Director / LEGO Education Innovation Studio
Q: How much does it cost?
One of the things I am often asked is how much does a Brick Club using LBT cost to set up. This can be difficult to answer because the cost of your ‘Brick Club’ will depend on a number of factors:
• The number of participants involved
• The age of the participants
• The ability level of the participants
• Room hire – The venue (do you have to pay)
• Staffing, travel etc.
• Transport
• Additional support or resources required
• The available budget
Obviously, LEGO resources are the best-known brick suppliers and their quality is assured and I would recommend wherever possible to purchase genuine LEGO bricks and resources. However, if you are working on a limited budget there are alternatives, and these are shown below. One thing to remember is never mix LEGO and non-LEGO as this may cause confusion and issues at a later stage.
LEGO
https://www.lego.com/en-gb?domainredir=www.shop.lego.com
COBI
https://cobi.pl/en/
WILKO BLOX
https://www.wilko.com/…/construction-…/all-wilko-blox/c/1246
Searching ebay for LEGO bricks can also be useful as 1K of LEGO can sometimes be purchased for as little as £19.99. You need to ensure they are genuine LEGO bricks and they have been washed (if not you need to wash them).
You could also try asking parents etc., for donations but I have found that it is very rare for anyone to part with LEGO.
Q: How long will participants take to construct their ‘brick’ creation?
Again, this is not a simple question to answer as it will depend on the level of ability of participants, can they work together and focus on the task/s, how good are their communication skills etc.
As you progress the LBT sessions the builds/sets may become more complicated and until you have experience in delivering them timing of the session/s can be an issue. LeGoff et.al. (2014) came up with a very useful formula to roughly calculate build time for LEGO® sets/creations:
The number of LEGO® pieces involved
DIVIDED BY
Developmental age of group members
= Time in minutes
For example: If the build skills of the group is an average of a ten-year-old a LEGO set with 600 pieces would take 60 minutes to complete ( 600/10).
However, this figure is an uninterrupted and intense session of 60 minutes and does not take into consideration any breaks, discussions or issues that may occur during that time. It would therefore be wise to add time to the build once you know the capabilities of the children/young people taking part. In my experience it would be wise to add an additional thirty minutes to ensure the smooth running of the session.
Keep an eye out for more LBT updates and if you want to read the free papers go to:
https://williamlockitt.co.uk/
