Building confidence: Shropshire college in Lego bricks appeal to help students' communication skills
A Shropshire college for people with learning difficulties, which offers Lego-based activities to build communication skills, is appealing for donations.
Derwen College, in Gobowen, near Oswestry, is set to start the workshops this month for students who have autistic spectrum disorder and communication problems.
Teacher Mathew Barnett is now appealing to businesses and individuals to donate Lego kits, bricks, tools and boards.
He said: “Students choose between a kit or a freestyle project and work together.
"Working in groups of three, students then assign roles to each other as engineer, supplier and builder. The engineer directs and describes the instructions for the project; the supplier finds the right pieces and passes them on to the builder. The builder then puts the bricks together.
"In order for the project to go from bricks to final product, the three players must be able to communicate with each other, verbally or non-verbally, and to engage in joint attention, creativity, and problem solving,"
The idea was first reported by Professor Daniel LeGoff in 2004. When working with autistic youngsters, he would sometimes break the ice by asking children to bring in their latest building project.
One day he witnessed two autistic children in his waiting room communicate for the first time – the bond that had brought them together had been Lego.
For details of how to donate, telephone Derwen College on 01691 661234 or email enquiries@derwen.ac.uk
