Loretta Woodward Veney got her first box of Lego blocks when she was 5. They were a gift from her mother, Doris, and soon, building with the popular children’s toy became something mother and daughter did together.
However, the creative power of Lego blocks became most profound when Doris Woodward began to forget things.
Ms. Veney attached a plate to the dashboard of her car so her mom could keep herself busy with Lego blocks during heavy traffic to doctor appointments. It prevented Ms. Woodward from repeating “I want to go home” a thousand times over the course of the journey.
The plate included a mini-figure used to represent Ms. Woodward—something Ms. Veney figured her mom could use to communicate her feelings when the words wouldn’t come. When Ms. Woodward became especially agitated after a 2016 appointment at which they learned that Ms. Woodward’s memory lapses were due to Alzheimer’s disease, Ms. Veney asked her mom to build how she felt.
“She looked at the bricks for a long while. She took the Lego figure that represented her with the gray hair. She snatched the head off the mini figure, and held it up and said, ‘I feel like in a few years I’m going to lose my head,’” Ms. Veney recalled.
Thinking With Their Hands
Although Ms. Veney is certified in the Lego Serious Play method—designed to enhance communication and listening skills for families, teams, and organizations—there’s no real template for using the toy building blocks with those who have cognitive issues. Some facilities use blocks or larger building bricks that are easier to manipulate.
She sums up the underlying technique as thinking with your hands and leaving your brain out of the equation. Ms. Veney became a pioneer in Lego for dementia, inspired by the benefits she saw with her mother and others in assisted living and memory/elder care facilities.
She started holding workshops at which patients grappling with cognitive decline, as well as their brain-weary caregivers, could explore the wonders of expression without words.
Eventually, Ms. Veney quit her job as a federal government executive, and she now travels the world full time as a speaker and trainer using Lego blocks with the dual aim of cognitive and relationship enhancement.
One prompt she uses often is to have participants—some nonverbal—build a favorite memory. Occasionally, a “build” sparks something so joyful that a person with dementia shocks everyone by talking about a past that had seemed forgotten or by finding words no one thought they’d utter again.
“This was not my intent. But now that we’re here, it’s awesome,” she said. “You just get to see the looks on people’s faces when someone talks again.”
She’ll never forget the time a 93-year-old resident at a memory care home started getting agitated in her seat during a build with her niece. Ms. Veney thought she needed to use the restroom. It turned out the woman, who hadn’t spoken in some time, was reenacting a dance from a trip she’d taken with her niece 15 years earlier.
The Power of Building
Although there’s not much in scientific literature to explain the phenomenon, one case study involving an 11-year-old boy with autism spectrum disorder illustrated the neuroplasticity of the brain when using a Lego program.He spent 12 months doing 90-minute sessions weekly with a specialist using Lego bricks. His verbal comprehension, visual-spatial index, working memory index, and processing speed index all showed significant advancement, according to results published in 2023 in AIMS Neuroscience.
Studies on dementia hint at something similar that could be taking place when seniors play with Lego bricks.
The software program featured cognitive-based activities plus memory, executive function, and other features.
Ongoing Programs Are Needed
The 2011 World Alzheimer’s Report noted that cognitive stimulation, especially early on in a diagnosis, can enhance cognitive function in patients with dementia and should be routinely offered.An Idea Organically Spreading
These numbers are on the rise, but so is interest in the kind of work Ms. Veney and others are doing.Called the Cognitive Training Program for People with Dementia, the program involves 500 progressive activity cards that allow participants to measure progress as they build by blueprint. Strategies require skills such as concentration, comprehension, perception, reasoning, memory, and processing speed.
Among the activities are templates for projects that require one to six bricks that participants must copy from memory. The organization, Ardent English Learners, offers sessions in person and online, as well as a certification program.
The demand for learning how to incorporate Lego bricks into dementia care facilities is growing despite the lack of research into its efficacy. The proof is self-evident, caregivers say.
It’s the fulfillment of a dream she had with her husband, Tim, who planned to travel the world with her to share the gift of Lego building in programs and presentations. The couple was in the middle of a 30-day trial run trip in their RV in 2016 when Tim suffered a stroke.
Benefits Extend Beyond Patients
With the increase in dementia, there’s a parallel concern about the lack of caregivers and about caregivers’ being stretched too thin. Lego tools, games, and programs can help keep patients occupied, calm, and stimulated. Participation in the program has had a compelling effect on caregivers.Ms. Veney knew this firsthand from her caregiving experience. She doesn’t leave caregivers out of the equation and even has offerings designed strictly for them, as well as workshops for caregivers to work with their loved ones with dementia.
Gail Titus participated in a few sessions with her mother, Dolores Davidson, who has since died. Ms. Davidson was nonverbal at the time and not capable of helping much with the build. Ms. Titus had never played with Lego bricks before. She was enthralled.
“When you’re working with the Lego, there’s no right or wrong. I was able to establish a connection with my mom. It was something we could share and do together,” Ms. Titus said.
Her mom’s body language told Ms. Titus she was at peace and enjoying herself. She left each session feeling like she had an “excellent counseling session.”
Other residents, she said, were able to reminisce during the session, and tears were shed—but always tears of joy.
“I want Loretta to continue with what she’s doing because she’s really impacting a lot of people,” Ms. Titus said.
Not the least of them is Ms. Veney herself. Lego building and creating Lego fidgets has been a sort of therapy for her—helping her cope with her own losses, bond with others, and work through hard emotions.
During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, Ms. Veney and Ms. Woodward, who died in 2022, would play with Lego bricks through a window. Juggling the demands of caregiving often had Ms. Veney turning to her bricks at home by herself, too.
“That was how some of my brain fog was reversed. When I felt really bad, I would just put some [Lego bricks] on the table and build some stuff,” she said. “Lego got me through a lot of stuff—it is a huge part of my sanity.”
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