Bournemouth University’s Dr Holly Henderson, FLIE (Fusion Learning Innovation & Excellence) and Dr Richard Shipway, Bournemouth University Business School (BUBS), new publication ‘(Re)framing Lego® Serious Play® for children & young people’ highlights how Lego® may help children explore challenges, consider barriers, contemplate new ideas, and reflect on their experiences of anxiety in relation to the annual school transition process, when a child either moves between year groups or to a new school.
According to a recent NHS survey, in the Autumn term of 2022, 3.8% of children aged 8 to 16 years missed more than 15 days of school. Children with a probable mental disorder were seven times more likely than children unlikely to have a mental disorder to have missed more than 15 days of school (11.2% compared with 1.5%).
Henderson said, “Lego® is an effective platform because children recognise it and instantly have an inkling that something playful will occur. The scaffolding structure afforded by Lego® Serious Play® enables flow, sharing and reflection.”
They collected data in a UK junior school from sixty-four children, ranging from seven to eleven years of age to investigate how play may support children during the school transition process. The children were split across four workshops, where they completed a series of tasks using Lego®. The data was collected in two stages, in the pre-and post-period surrounding their annual school ‘transition day’, where the pupils spend the day in their next year group.
Shipway said, “The results contribute to knowledge by highlighting the power of Lego® to complement and contrast with the more traditional, conventional learning approaches used within schools, and to effectively unlock the true feelings, values, thoughts, and perspectives of children.”
A survey was also conducted with staff who attended the workshops to obtain their observations. An underlying aim of the study was for both teachers and Lego® facilitators to co-learn with the children and help smooth the passage and remove potential barriers, through various phases of Lego® ‘builds’. This objective was achieved, and the outcomes of the workshops helped inform changes to future school activities to better support the pupils and minimise anxieties.
Henderson said, “…for pupils aged between twelve and eighteen years of age, there is added value for Lego® Serious Play® to be more formally integrated within the school curriculum to demonstrate both learning outcomes and therapeutic benefits.”
When exploring the notion of play in the adult domain, it has been suggested that the same characteristics of children's play can also extend to adults. Shipway commented, “Lego® Serious Play® is a facilitated thinking, communication and problem-solving technique which may benefit organisations, teams and individuals. We are researching the application of creative methods in a diverse range of adult settings. For example, in the management of sport organisations and federations.”
