Do you have fond memories of playing with Lego as a child? Do you see your own children or grandchildren getting the same thrill? The brand, which has been around since the 1930s, has since developed to be totally inclusive of age, ability and gender. Play therapist and existential coach Claire Francica and ontological life coach Krisztina Rusak talk about a Lego project.
Sixty students from Cospicua Primary school, St Margaret College were fortunate to land a Lego experience as part of their Cospicua Lego Project. After-school-based sessions were held between the academic years of 2015 and 2017. Each session lasted 45 minutes and ran on a weekly basis with our facilitation.
Lego has also found its way into schools. Research (Andras, 2012; LeGoff et al., 2014) has shown that Lego-based group work in the school environment facilitates the interdependent roles of collaboration, accomplishment, division of labour, sharing, turn-taking, eye contact, and verbal and non-verbal communication.
Brick-building provides great opportunities for existential coaching, a new ideology for Malta, and has a definite place to occupy among other helping professions as it applies complex philosophical thought around choices, responsibilities, conflict and dilemmas in a down-to-earth, practical manner.
Existential coaching focuses mainly on conversation dealing with specific existential issues in the here and now. In fact, one of the central tools of existential coaching is phenomenology, which is a scientific way of investigating the different aspects and interpretations of the task at hand until a true picture emerges. Thus, the engagement with the issues at hand is paramount, directly touching the children’s preoccupations with their Lego models or with their peers.
Sponsored by the Spiru Mizzi Foundation, Maurice Mizzi, the foundation’s chairman, put his heart and soul into the project, which was personally very significant for him. He had childhood memories of difficult moments resolved when he was allowed the space to use his imagination and creativity through brickwork. As a result, he became more resilient and has since wished for other children to get the opportunity for similar experiences.
The children developed skills that could be generalised outside the classroom situation and applied to life itself
A substantive amount of bricks was required to meet the needs of the children, who varied in age and ability. In addition to the regular Lego bricks, Duplo blocks were made available to younger users and those children who were still developing fine motor function, and Lego Technic was made available to those children who had the potential to develop more advanced creations by using complicated connecting pieces.
During the initial phases of the intervention, children were given the space to free build. Gradually, themes started to be introduced. The children were free to work alone or collaboratively in pairs or in larger groups, in the building of houses, garages, gardens, airports, shops and any other theme they themselves suggested.
Little by little, they started taking up roles: the engineer made plans and described the bricks needed for the construction; the supplier found the right bricks, while the builder put the construction together with the help of other builders and the engineer. As was to be expected there were conflicts: some children crossed the room to change teams or teams vied for the same rare pieces of construction, which then required them to negotiate and, at times, barter.
Feedback on the construction was not only given by the coaches but also by the children themselves. Indeed, the project gave the children the opportunity to learn to give honest feedback and to be constructively critical of a project with the aim of encouraging improvement. With this attitude, the group members could listen to one another and work towards accomplishing the task.
As award-winning journalist Daniel Coyle said: “Greatness isn’t born, it’s grown.” The benefits these children gained from the project were endless. By the end of the 10-week course they had developed skills that could be generalised outside the classroom situation and applied to life itself.
Children became less withdrawn and more articulate, gained more confidence both academically and socially, developed a sense of belonging and encouraged and welcomed new recruits to join in. Moreover, those children who attended the lego group for the second consecutive year became coaches themselves, by setting the example and establishing group rules.
A sense of pride had been generated. This feeling was contagious and also impacted on the parents. April 2017 marked the end of the Lego Project with a prize-giving exhibition where each and every child was specifically rewarded for the contributions made with their creative inspirations.
Claire Francica and Krisztina Rusak are both resgistered coaches with the European Mentoring and Coaching Council.