As you know, I find myself with several 5-8 year-old boys on my caseload and they are wild about legos. My little friend ran upstairs this morning to pour over his lego catalogue with me, showing me that the picture had the same “Chima” stick as I had in my pile of 30 year-old legos from my boys. After hearing all the details of the Lego Movie (I don’t even have to go, I know so much), I picked up the easy reader books which are also a staple in my therapy bag. But the real hit is a zip lock bag of legos I’ve grabbed from a huge tub my kids played with 30 years ago. It didn’t occur to me that they were so special until several boys asked me if these were “old” legos. “How can you tell?” “On, my dad lets us play with his and he has some of these same pieces.”
Lately they are the toy of choice in my therapy bag for reinforcement as kids practice their sounds and work on fluency. We have discovered that “old” legos can fit right into the current Chima theme, although I had to fish out all the clear green pieces for chi, and several pieces like the long grey arm and white flat piece that opens in three sections are exciting to kids because they aren’t in their repertoire of new legos.
Effective therapy is so much about making sessions fun and having rewards for kids that are meaningful. AND I am always changing up what is in my bag and learning something new from my little clients.
Who would have known that I would be an expert on Chima and Ninjago legos?