The Blood Draw Learning Kit
Free information for families and schools. A picture-based way to get a child ready for a blood draw, before the real day.
And the kit's schedule now lives inside the Choiceworks app as a sample board.
The story
In 2011, Bee Visual partnered with Children's Hospital Boston and Carol Gray's Gray Center for Social Learning and Understanding to create the Blood Draw Learning Kit, a picture-based preparation kit for one of the hardest moments a child faces at the doctor's office. Researchers reported blood-draw success rising from about 86 percent to 96 percent with the kit program in place, and 37 of 38 children with high anticipatory anxiety completed their draw (Autism Spectrum Quarterly, Spring 2012). The idea was simple: the child could see what was going to happen and do it first, safely, at home, so the real day already had a familiar ending.
The hospital tells the story in its own words in its 2011 TIDO annual report. The clinical summary also lives on our For Schools page.
Real supplies, packed at home
The supplies are real. We sourced them from a medical manufacturer and asked them to run the butterfly sets without the needle, so a child can hold and practice with the true items safely. And every kit was packed by hand: Michele and her sons ran an assembly line on the pool table downstairs, four bandages, the butterfly set, gloves, an alcohol swab, the instruction sheet, and the Getting My Blood Drawn story in every box, sealed with two clear discs. The boys did it as their community service project. This family has been in it from the start.
Please read first
An adult supervises every practice session. Practice items only, never real needles, never anything sharp. This kit teaches a child what will happen at a blood draw; it is not medical advice. Questions about your child's care go to your child's doctor.
Inside the kit
Practice at home
Here is what we used. The photographs show everything that came in the kit, and the instructions and the book explain how a practice session goes.
For your own practice pieces, get creative with what you already have. A doll or a teddy bear, a Band-Aid from the store, an alcohol wipe from the store, a toy doctor kit. Most of it is at any store, and some of it is already in your home. Adapt what you find and put it into this framework. With adult supervision, of course.
Free downloads
This download goes live with the founder's photographs of the kit.
Getting My Blood Drawn, written by Carol Gray, Gray Center, 2011.
This download goes live with the founder's photographs of the kit.
Schools: the clinical summary and PD hour live on our For Schools page.
This kit is free to download. Bee Visual has never made a dime on it, not then, not now. It exists to help children get through a hard day. That's the whole job.
In 2013, Bee Visual donated the remaining kits to Boston Children's Hospital's Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders, for patients who needed blood draws in clinic and for families in their research studies.
The board is in the Choiceworks app too
The same blood draw schedule lives in the Choiceworks app as a ready-made sample board, with Luke's voice guiding each step. iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android, and Chromebook, at no additional cost.
The Blood Draw Learning Kit, 2011. Created by Bee Visual, LLC with Children's Hospital Boston and Carol Gray's Gray Center for Social Learning and Understanding. Built on clinical research by the hospital's Division of Developmental Medicine, with initial funding from the hospital's Technology & Innovation Development Office. Story written by Carol Gray. Michele Walker developed and produced the kit, and donated the inventory to the hospital's Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders.