The Lego are the most popular toy in the world. For generations, we have loved these colorful blocks that are sold all over the planet.
But have you ever wondered why we love Legos so much? The fascination of adults and children for this toy born in Denmark is not accidental and psychologists explain why we like Lego so much, even though we are surrounded by other toys that are similar.
Psychology explains your love for Lego
In 1932 a Danish carpenter changed the history of toys forever by inventing the Lego, which in his language means 'play well'. With the decades, these blocks only grew in popularity and today there are 62 pieces of Lego for every inhabitant of the world. What makes these color blocks so special? The British psychologist Jon Sutton studied this phenomenon and tells us the reasons behind the global love for the Lego, both in children and adults.
The Lego are ideal for children and adults with different skill levels, since it only takes imagination to transform them into objects and can represent anything that happens to whoever plays with them. Durham University psychologist Charles Fernyhough explains that Lego is a toy that at first sight represents nothing, but that it can represent anything, what differentiates it from other construction games in which its parts must clearly be used to find a particular object.
In the last decades, Lego began to present sets with instructions to build something specific, but that did not take away its essence. While these Lego come with instructions that teach us to follow a logical order, the child or adult can stop following the indications at any time and convert the pieces or modify the design at will because there is nothing to prevent it.
Thanks to the work of scientists together with the Lego Foundation for creativity, play and learning, these blocks are today a therapeutic tool, since they stimulate certain neuronal processes in the brain that combine with different abilities and give way to the acquisition of new abilities.
The children with ASD (autism spectrum disorders) benefit especially from playing with Lego because they are exposed to a therapy in which the structured is present (something important for them), but there is also room to try new things . Studies in children with autism showed that in small groups playing with Lego helps improve socialization and teamwork, in addition to reducing their levels of anxiety and stress.