How Finlay Built Up Confidence One Brick at a Time

Finlay has been part of a local Brick Club in the North of England for the past year. Brick Clubs are weekly meetups where young people can express themselves, learn through play and collaborate with others by working together building or designing LEGO® models.

The programme behind Brick Clubs is called Brick-by-Brick® programme and is run by social enterprise and LEGO Foundation partner Play Included. Brick Clubs are designed to offer neurodivergent children positive, meaningful and social experiences in an understanding, playful and accepting environment.

By building and designing LEGO models, the children work together to problem-solve and share a fun experience. In a session, children rotate between being a builder, a supplier or an engineer. Collaborative building supports all members of the club to create as a group and help each other out.

Strengthening different communication skills in an environment that works best for Finlay has boosted his self-belief. Finlay is more open and happier in explaining his thoughts, feelings and ideas; which has also helped his classmates, teachers and his family. They can all see how much more relaxed and assured he is as a young man. 

“In the last year, he’s definitely had a boost in confidence around people,” explains Finlay’s mum, Susannah. “It was only a few years ago that I was talking to his teachers about this because he would get frustrated as he felt more confident than people realised. He felt underestimated a little bit. But that’s all changed. He’s started communicating better and discovered the best way to get things across is to tell people [how he feels].”

“He’s learned a lot about patience, working together and accepting that everyone has ideas,” Susannah continues. “He understands that it's okay to have different ideas to everyone else, but just share them. He’s increasingly seeing how by working together, you can figure out a way to accomplish what you're looking to accomplish"

Listening in on the conversations of Finlay and his Brick Club, you quickly notice how much it provides an opportunity to experiment with vocabulary and different ways of communicating within the group. Listening more closely you can hear how everyone is freely putting themselves in another member’s shoes to use the necessary prepositions to describe the placement of LEGO Bricks or explain to each other that a piece should connect on their left or their right. Finlay is especially proud that he can now confidently get the attention of others by using their name as a prompt, reducing some of the frustrations that he may have experienced before: “by saying their name, they look at me and [better] understand what they have to find,” he says.

These seemingly small changes have given Finlay a game-changing boost of confidence that is now reflected in the classroom and his relationships with his peers.  A keen sportsman, Finlay is now part of a group of Donaldson’s Trust pupils who come together at lunch times to chat and kick a football around. He’s also recently joined a local cricket club, and, thanks to his ever-growing confidence, Finlay is enjoying meeting and getting to know new people outside of school. 

Finlay’s mum has a clear idea why Brick Club is so impactful for her son – it is face-to-face interaction that is free from the distractions of modern life.