Skip to content

Hospital launches animated video for SEND children

Eleanor Maslin
BBC News
NHS Humber Health Partnership A colourful animation of a black-haired girl wearing blue dungarees holding a dinosaur toy and laying on a hospital chair. She has sensors attached to her forehead and is looking at a yellow animated person whose head resembles a flame.NHS Humber Health Partnership
Unseen Buddies Episode 1 – Going for an EEG is the first video released by Hull Royal Infirmary

A hospital has launched an animated video to help explain procedures to children with special educational needs and disabilities.

Staff at Hull Royal Infirmary worked alongside animation company Get Animated Medical to create a video about going for an electroencephalogram (EEG), which involves attaching sensors to measure brain activity.

Called Unseen Buddies Episode 1 - Going for an EEG, the video features a friendly character called Sparky to help illustrate the test.

The paediatric team is hoping the video will be the first in a series, guiding young people and their families through their healthcare journeys, including MRI scans, blood tests and coming to hospital.

NHS Humber Health Partnership An animation of a yellow animated person whose head resembles a flame sat around a table with a black-haired girl with blue dungarees on and a woman with brown hair tied back and a yellow sweater. They are all eating food from plates and bowls.NHS Humber Health Partnership
The animation features comforting narration in a comic-strip style to illustrate the procedure

Dr Sandhya Jose, consultant in paediatric medicine for NHS Humber Health Partnership, said anxieties can be "heightened among children with additional needs or disabilities" as they can "find it more difficult to understand what's happening".

She said: "Being able to provide them with clear information which they can take in in their own time, in their own way, can really help to calm and reassure children, and enable us as health professionals to get the best out of their time in clinic with us."

Feedback from families who use their services was taken into account when making the video, Dr Jose added.

Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.

More on this story
Related internet links