CMU, UK Company Team To Bring LEGO Brick Therapy To Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH, PA — Carnegie Mellon University has partnered with a United Kingdom company, Play Included, to launch the internationally-acclaimed LEGO brick based therapy in the United States.

The Brick-by-Brick program partnership will enable CMU to train education professionals to deliver the program in their own schools to support children’s development and personal well-being.

The program involves collaborative LEGO play, enabling children to have fun, make friends and develop communication skills, confidence and social and emotional well-being.

Over the past few weeks, the university has trained 27 educators in the program methodology, and there are already 16 active sites across Pittsburgh that have implemented LEGO brick-based therapy for more than 170 local children.

LEGO brick clubs include team-based activities in which kids together to build a LEGO model, taking turns to play different roles (called the engineer, supplier and builder) until the model is built. Another option is freestyle building, where pairs or small teams can design and create their own models together.

For more advanced LEGO builders, there’s also the opportunity to create stop-motion animations and work on coding and programming LEGO activities