Brief report Topical Sections

The impact of Lego® Therapy on cognitive skills in Autism Spectrum Disorders: a brief discussion

  • Received: 19 March 2023 Revised: 14 June 2023 Accepted: 18 June 2023 Published: 30 June 2023
  • Over the years, several interventions have been implemented, including Lego® Therapy, with the aim of supporting and implementing social and communication skills impairments in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Although recent studies have shown that the ability to learn implicitly is preserved in ASDs, no study related to Lego® Therapy has analyzed whether and how this training can also affect aspects not directly treated. In this study, we report a first attempt of assessment of Lego® Therapy's effect on the specific area of cognitive skills in an ASD child. Over a period of 12 months, a child with ASD had weekly meetings with an expert operator of Lego® aiming to improve the child's ability to communicate, reduce impulsiveness and hyper verbalism, and encourage pro-social behavior. The intervention resulted in positive outcomes that were assessed after 12 months.

    Citation: Nicoletta Vegni, Caterina D'Ardia, Gloria Di Filippo, Francesco Maria Melchiori. The impact of Lego® Therapy on cognitive skills in Autism Spectrum Disorders: a brief discussion[J]. AIMS Neuroscience, 2023, 10(2): 190-199. doi: 10.3934/Neuroscience.2023016

    Related Papers:

  • Over the years, several interventions have been implemented, including Lego® Therapy, with the aim of supporting and implementing social and communication skills impairments in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Although recent studies have shown that the ability to learn implicitly is preserved in ASDs, no study related to Lego® Therapy has analyzed whether and how this training can also affect aspects not directly treated. In this study, we report a first attempt of assessment of Lego® Therapy's effect on the specific area of cognitive skills in an ASD child. Over a period of 12 months, a child with ASD had weekly meetings with an expert operator of Lego® aiming to improve the child's ability to communicate, reduce impulsiveness and hyper verbalism, and encourage pro-social behavior. The intervention resulted in positive outcomes that were assessed after 12 months.



    加载中


    Conflict of interest



    The authors declare no conflict of interest.

    Author contributions



    Conceptualization, N, V. and C.D.; data curation, G.D.F. and F.M.M.; formal analysis, G.D.F. and F.M.M.; writing—original draft, N.V.; writing—review & editing, N.V. and F.M.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

    [1] (2013) American Psychiatric AssociationDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fifth Edition).American Psychiatric Association. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596
    [2] Pollard NL (1998) Development of Social Interaction Skills in Preschool Children with Autism: A Review of the Literature. Child Fam Behav Ther 20: 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1300/J019v20n02_01
    [3] Scheeren AM, Koot HM, Begeer S (2012) Social Interaction Style of Children and Adolescents with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 42: 2046-2055. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-012-1451-x
    [4] Dean M, Kasari C, Shih W, et al. (2014) The peer relationships of girls with ASD at school: Comparison to boys and girls with and without ASD. J Child Psychol Psyc 55: 1218-1225. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12242
    [5] Clark BG, Magill-Evans JE, Koning CJ (2015) Youth With Autism Spectrum Disorders: Self- and Proxy-Reported Quality of Life and Adaptive Functioning. Focus Autism Dev Dis 30: 57-64. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088357614522289
    [6] Peterson CC, Garnett M, Kelly A, et al. (2009) Everyday social and conversation applications of theory-of-mind understanding by children with autism-spectrum disorders or typical development. Eur Child Adoles Psy 18: 105-115. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-008-0711-y
    [7] Shaw DS, Owens EB, Vondra JI, et al. (1996) Early risk factors and pathways in the development of early disruptive behavior problems. Dev Psychopathol 8: 679-699. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579400007367
    [8] McConnell SR (2002) Interventions to Facilitate Social Interaction for Young Children with Autism: Review of Available Research and Recommendations for Educational Intervention and Future Research. J Autism Dev Disord 32: 351-372. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020537805154
    [9] Peterson C (2014) Theory of mind understanding and empathic behavior in children with autism spectrum disorders. Int J Dev Neurosci 39: 16-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdevneu.2014.05.002
    [10] Kimhi Y (2014) Theory of Mind Abilities and Deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorders. Top Lang Disord 34: 329-343. https://doi.org/10.1097/TLD.0000000000000033
    [11] Andreou M, Skrimpa V (2020) Theory of Mind Deficits and Neurophysiological Operations in Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Review. Brain Sci 10: 393. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10060393
    [12] Vegni N, D'Ardia C, Torregiani G (2021) Empathy, Mentalization, and Theory of Mind in Borderline Personality Disorder: Possible Overlap With Autism Spectrum Disorders. Front Psychol 12: 626353. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.626353
    [13] Vanegas SB, Davidson D (2015) Investigating distinct and related contributions of Weak Central Coherence, Executive Dysfunction, and Systemizing theories to the cognitive profiles of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and typically developing children. Res Autism Spect Dis 11: 77-92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2014.12.005
    [14] Pellicano E, Maybery M, Durkin K, et al. (2006) Multiple cognitive capabilities/deficits in children with an autism spectrum disorder: “Weak” central coherence and its relationship to theory of mind and executive control. Dev Psychopathol 18. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579406060056
    [15] Demetriou EA, Lampit A, Quintana DS, et al. (2018) Autism spectrum disorders: A meta-analysis of executive function. Mol Psychiatr 23: 1198-1204. https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2017.75
    [16] Demetriou EA, DeMayo MM, Guastella AJ (2019) Executive Function in Autism Spectrum Disorder: History, Theoretical Models, Empirical Findings, and Potential as an Endophenotype. Front Psychiatry 10: 753. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2019.00753
    [17] Happé F, Vital P (2009) What aspects of autism predispose to talent?. Philos T R Soc B 364: 1369-1375. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2008.0332
    [18] Happé F, Frith U (2010) Autism and talent.Oxford University Press.
    [19] Baron-Cohen S, Ashwin E, Ashwin C, et al. (2009) Talent in autism: Hyper-systemizing, hyper-attention to detail and sensory hypersensitivity. Philos T R Soc B 364: 1377-1383. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2008.0337
    [20] Grandin T (2009) How does visual thinking work in the mind of a person with autism? A personal account. Philos T R Soc B 364: 1437-1442. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2008.0297
    [21] Legoff DB, Gomez De La Cuesta G, Krauss GW, et al. (2014). LEGO-Based Therapy: How to build social competence through Lego-Based Clubs for children with autism and related conditions. Jessica Kingsley Publishers
    [22] Lindsay S, Hounsell KG, Cassiani C (2017) A scoping review of the role of LEGO ® therapy for improving inclusion and social skills among children and youth with autism. Disabil Health J 10: 173-182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dhjo.2016.10.010
    [23] Attwood T (2008) The complete guide to Asperger's syndrome.Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
    [24] McGee GG, Feldman RS, Morrier MJ (1997) Benchmarks of Social Treatment for Children with Autism. J Autism Dev Disord 27: 353-364. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025849220209
    [25] Ozonoff S, Cathcart K (1998) Effectiveness of a Home Program Intervention for Young Children with Autism. J Autism Dev Disord 28: 25-32. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026006818310
    [26] Legoff DB (2004) Use of LEGO© as a Therapeutic Medium for Improving Social Competence. J Autism Dev Disord 34: 557-571. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-004-2550-0
    [27] Legoff DB, Sherman M (2006) Long-term outcome of social skills intervention based on interactive LEGO© play. Autism 10: 317-329. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361306064403
    [28] Owen-DeSchryver JS, Carr EG, Cale SI, et al. (2008) Promoting Social Interactions Between Students With Autism Spectrum Disorders and Their Peers in Inclusive School Settings. Focus Autism Dev Dis 23: 15-28. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088357608314370
    [29] Seger CA (1994) Implicit learning. Psychol Bull 115: 163-196. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.115.2.163
    [30] Narzisi A, Sesso G, Berloffa S, et al. (2021) Could You Give Me the Blue Brick? LEGO®-Based Therapy as a Social Development Program for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review. Brain Sci 11: 702. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11060702
    [31] McGeorge P, Crawford JR, Kelly SW (1997) The relationships between psychometric intelligence and learning in an explicit and an implicit task. J Exp Psychol Learn 23: 239-245. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.23.1.239
    [32] Foti F, De Crescenzo F, Vivanti G, et al. (2015) Implicit learning in individuals with autism spectrum disorders: A meta-analysis. Psychol Med 45: 897-910. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291714001950
    [33] Orsini A, Picone L (2006) WISC-3.: Contributo alla taratura italiana.Firenze Press.
    [34] Fancello GS, Vio C, Cianchetti C TOL. Torre di Londra. Test di valutazione delle funzioni esecutive (pianificazione e problem solving). Con CD-ROM. Edizioni Erickson (2006).
    [35] Ferri R, Orsini A, Rea M Adaptive Behavior Assessment System-: contributo alla taratura italiana (1-18 anni). In Adaptive Behavior Assessment System-Second Edition: Contributo alla taratura italiana (1-18 anni) (pp. 1-153). Giunti OS (2014).
  • Reader Comments
  • © 2023 the Author(s), licensee AIMS Press. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)
通讯作者: 陈斌, bchen63@163.com
  • 1. 

    沈阳化工大学材料科学与工程学院 沈阳 110142

  1. 本站搜索
  2. 百度学术搜索
  3. 万方数据库搜索
  4. CNKI搜索

Metrics

Article views(1355) PDF downloads(185) Cited by(0)

Article outline

Figures and Tables

Tables(2)

/

DownLoad:  Full-Size Img  PowerPoint
Return
Return

Catalog