🤡 When Toys Do More Than Play 🎲✨
Toys can ease anxiety, spark learning ✨, and help children face tough moments ❤️—like scary hospital scans 🏥.
🤡 Toys aren’t just for play
They can ease children’s anxiety and even prepare them for stressful moments like medical scans.
🔑 Why it matters
Research shows 🧠✨ play reduces anxiety 😌 and supports brain development 📚.
At a discussion titled “Fear to Confidence: Learning through Play with LEGO MRI Scanners” at the ASEAN Secretariat building in Jakarta on Thursday (08/28), pediatrician dr. Bernie Endyarni Medise explains:
“Children’s brains are abstract, especially at ages 6–7, so they need play.”
Medical settings make this even more important.
The loud, beeping sounds of MRI scanners 📟 often spike children’s stress 😰.
A playful tool 🎲 can soften that fear 💛.
Enter LEGO
In 2015, a LEGO employee 🧱 and a Danish hospital 🏥 created a mini MRI scanner kit 📦.
By 2022, the LEGO Foundation 🧱🌍 had donated 600 kits worldwide 🎁.
The LEGO MRI sets walk kids in turning fear into confidence.
🌏 The Expansion
Now, the ASEAN Foundation, LEGO, and United Way Worldwide 🤝 are distributing 1,002 kits across Southeast Asia 🌏 — 324 each in Indonesia 🇮🇩 and Singapore 🇸🇬 — along with educational materials for families 📚👨👩👧.
👨👩👧 Why families matter
Siti Fuadilla Alchumaira of Save the Children Indonesia 🗣️ emphasized that adults shouldn’t control play but guide it 🎲.
She flagged two challenges:
Balancing fun with learning ⚖️✨
Ensuring access 🌍🔑
Her reminder:
“Playing doesn’t require expensive tools.”
✨ The takeaway
Toys can be more than entertainment. 🎲✨ They calm 😌, teach 📚, and connect 🤝.
Or as LEGO’s Ardi Hendharto put it: 🗨️
“Play is the most natural way to learn for children.”
(RHZ/QOB)