Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Self-efficacy through LEGO


While the video above provides a cute bit of LEGO animation about the attributes and attainment of self-efficacy, my own parenting experience has shown that the simple act of playing and building with LEGO toys can be a powerful tool in a child's development of self-efficacy.

My oldest child is 5 years old and he is a "LEGO Maniac," to quote a popular phrase from LEGO advertising from my childhood days.  Examining my son's development in terms of Erikson's Psychosocial Stages, he falls the 3rd stage "Initiate vs. Guilt and the 4th stage, "Industry vs. Inferiority."

An important keystone in development at the 3rd, and mainly the 4th stage is the development of self-efficacy.  This is the ability of the child to take initiative and assert themselves successfully in socially acceptable ways.  The development of self-efficacy is also a vital aspect of Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory.  In Bandura's own words:  "Persons who have a strong sense of efficacy deploy their attention and effort to the demands of the situation and are spurred by obstacles to greater effort."

Although there are many building toys that might make development of self-efficacy possible, there is something specific about the various products produced by LEGO that are particularly effective at facilitating this process.  Perhaps most important is the way that pre-designed LEGO sets provide opportunities for "Mastery Experiences."  The projects are coded for their age appropriateness and include very clear and precise directions that allow children to build complicated toys and structures almost completely by themselves.  To watch a child progress from a worried expression as they contemplate the complex structure on the front of the box, to intense concentration as they examine the directions and search for the correct parts, to pride as they examine their finished product is almost as fulfilling for a parent as the actual building is for the child.  

The use of LEGO as a tool for the development of self-efficacy has even spread into academic research, and even the LEGO corporation has developed it's own LEGO Learning Institute for the study of the interaction between play and learning.

The sense of mastery and self-efficacy that my son has learned from pre-designed sets is beginning to give him the confidence and inspiration to design and build his own creations.  Where once he would simply sit and stare at a pile of confusing and intimidating blocks, he now jumps right in and begins to build his own creations.

No comments:

Post a Comment