Lego Robotics Supplies for Students with Autism

Funded Jan 15, 2016

Due to your generosity supporting this Lego Robotics project, my students have begun an amazing adventure using a fun and inspiring technology that was new to all of them.

My students all have Autism Spectrum Disorders and are either nonverbal or have limited verbal skills (meaning they can use speech only to meet their most basic needs). If you were to meet them or try and have a conversation with them, it would be easy for you to miss out on their extraordinary abilities, which their speech cannot communicate. But if you were to see them build with these Lego Robotics kits, you would be blown away! They have become incredible builders and programmers. Even my students who struggle the most with their fine motor skills and independence following several steps of an activity in general, are able to build complex Lego structures on their own, navigating the Lego "WeDo" software program to guide their step-by-step construction independently. Not only this, but they show so much joy in building and programming these robots. They can't wait until it is Lego Robotics Project Time during our day!

Let me share an example of a student who has grown a ton through our Lego Robotics activities. Noah is a 5th grade student in my class. Noah doesn't talk out loud but is extremely intelligent. He is extremely sensitive to sounds and has impulses to put everything in his mouth, as a way to "feel" an object (he doesn't try to bit or swallow things, just mouths them-- something about this action is regulating for him). He also needs tons of help to use his fingers to coordinate movements. He has to work extremely hard at everything. The first few times we built with Legos, Noah tried to put every single Lego in his mouth and needed someone to hand him each new Lego, one at a time, to build onto his structure, as having the whole box to navigate was overwhelming. He needed someone to tell him when to click the "next" arrow to get to the next building step. But one thing was clear, Noah was super motivated to stick with his Lego Robot! We have been at our Lego Robotics for a number of weeks now and this week when we built the "Hungry Alligator" (which you program to snap its jaw when the alligator senses something near its jaw), which has over 60 lego parts, Noah tried to put only 1 of these Legos in his mouth. And in addition, he built the entire thing on his own, including searching through the box for each new Lego piece he needed (this task can be extremely difficult for my students) and using the program software to guide his construction and then to program his alligator! He was so proud of himself at the end of it!

Thank you again for providing weeks and weeks of amazing learning opportunities for my students through these Lego Robotics kits. I am excited to see where their interests, talents and determination to improve their skills for building and computer programming can take them!”

With gratitude,

Teacher Iorga