A year of Lego-Based Therapy at ARTESA – play, robotics and relationships that raise children
In November 2024 we launched, at ARTESA, the program Lego-Based Therapy (LBT), in partnership with Sara Octomed and ASM Smart Clinic, powered by Synevo Romania.
It was the beginning of an approach in which neurodivergent children, especially those with ASD, receive a safe relational framework, built around collaboration, creativity, and technology.
In the first year, 31 children aged six to fifteen participated in the weekly LBT groups. In the workshop, LEGO and robotics were not just technical tools, but contexts in which children learned to work together, ask for and give help, bounce back calmly from frustration, and find solutions together.
They built running bases, simple mechanisms with sensors, prototypes; they narrated the process, documented it, and transformed it into small visual projects, from stop-motion videos to improvised technical journals.
The changes observed over time were visible: cooperation, turn-taking, initiative, and joint attention gradually increased, also confirmed by the pre/post clinical psychological assessment rubrics used in the program.
The presence of the adult as a facilitator, not as an executor, was essential for these developments.
Education and play are not intended to prepare children to be part of society, but to renew culture so that society can maintain its adaptability and viability. Children playing together represent something much more important than most educators think: it is the foundation of culture and society. This has been the case long before large societies invented classrooms and schools.Daniel LeGoff, neuropsychologist, founder of LEGO Based Therapy
The results of the first year were also presented during Rogersian Week 2025, "Where is Psychotherapy? Expectations, Roles, the Psychotherapeutic Process in PCP", in a dialogue about how technology, play and psychotherapy can work together for the benefit of children, by Andreea Cătălina Lumpan, clinical psychologist and Person Centred Psychotherapy psychotherapist.
For 2026, we aim to strengthen the program: to expand access to the center for 60 children, and for a group of 10 children already on a development path within the program, to build an advanced applied path, with the objective of forming one or two teams for the Innovative Projects category at the national stage of the World Robot Olympiad Romania, in parallel with mentoring and collaboration activities with newly enrolled children. To continue socio-emotional monitoring and to build a public portfolio of projects and resources.Marius Lumpan, Founding Member - Romanian Association of Person-Centered Psychotherapy and President of ARTESA
We thank our partners Sara Octomed, ASM Smart Clinic and Synevo Romania for your consistent support. ARTESA Association remains responsible for the technical side and educational infrastructure, while the clinical intervention is carried out separately, in the specialized teams of the partners.
Children playing together are the basis of society.Daniel LeGoff, neuropsychologist, founder of LEGO Based Therapy
After the first year of Lego-Based Therapy at ARTESA, we see this idea in every workshop: when children create together, courage, emotional regulation, and a sense of belonging are born – the first pieces of a healthy community.