PLX Academy · News · 09 May 2022
The LEGO Foundation has announced it will donate 600 Lego sets for miniature MRI Scanners to hospitals worldwide, to help children cope with the uncertainty of having a Magnetic Resonance scan. The team developed the sets as a way to make it easier for children to navigate the often daunting and intimidating process of having an MRI scan. Lego MRI Scanners are designed to help children collaborate better with clinicians and understand what the large and complex MRI machine is all about.
“I’ve seen first-hand how children have responded to these models; making them feel more relaxed and turning an often highly stressful experience into a positive, playful one”, said Erik Ullerlund Staehr, Chemical Technician at the LEGO Group.
What started in 2015 as a passion project for LEGO employee Erik Ullerlund Staehr and Odense University Hospital, Denmark, is now being scaled and piloted with new training material for hospital staff.
“MRI Scanners are huge machines. They also make a lot of noise which can be very daunting for children. Our team has found that the use of models such as the LEGO model has led to more positive, calm experiences for many children. This benefits the child, their family and also the quality of the MRI scan, which relies on the person being very still for up to an hour in order to be successful”, said Ulla Jensen from the Department of Radiology at Odense University Hospital, Denmark. They have used the LEGO MRI Scanners as part of their playful learning approach to help over 200 children aged 4-9 annually.
Play motivates the child’s natural curiosity and openness to try new, sometimes difficult, experiences. Because play facilitates a safe and comfortable “training space” for real-life events and consequences, it is a powerful way for children to develop their social and emotional skills. It can also be part of a range of playful experiences that contribute to clinicians’ ambition of reducing the use of anesthesia. “MRI scans can be scary, anxiety-inducing experiences for all of us, but especially so for children. Through a playful learning approach, such as the LEGO MRI Scanner, we’ve been able to take children through the process step by step to prepare them for what’s to come, and in turn, help them to feel safe by making the unknown, known. The feedback so far has been overwhelming,” said Dorthe Feveile Kjerkegaard, Play & Health Specialist at the LEGO Foundation.