21900 the number of times you blink in a
day the price of a rhinestone-studded
vacuum cleaner and the number of times a
child with type 1 diabetes gets pricked
and injected in their first 5 years
after diagnosis now for those of you
that don't know diabetes is an illness
where all of the sudden your pancreas
stops working and overnight the lives of
children are transformed they have to
prick their fingers constantly
throughout the day to monitor their
blood glucose levels inject insulin
along with every meal and count every
single carbohydrate that enters their
mouths and as you can imagine it's
pretty scary
for these kids education and comfort are
so incredibly important to set them up
for happy and healthy lives and while
this is also serious the solution is
less so I believe that Play has the
power to fundamentally change the way
that children learn about their health
I'd like you to meet Jerry the bear
Jerry is a best friend role model and
learning tool who helps kids understand
their health we first designed Jerry for
children with type 1 diabetes to help
educate them and comfort them Jerry's
got little electronic sensors all
throughout his body that enable children
to care for him and breathe life into
what would otherwise be an inanimate
stuffed animal now the idea for Jerry
actually comes from a really simple
insight children with type 1 diabetes
already take care of their stuffed
animals as if they have diabetes they'll
pretend to prick their teddy bears
fingers inject them with insulin they'll
even draw little insulin pumps on pieces
of paper and staple it to the fur of
their stuffed animals now what these
kids are doing in play terms is their
role playing in the same way that a
healthy child would roleplay a tea party
these kids are acting out all of the
thing
that they're not yet allowed to do to
themselves when they're diagnosed
between the ages of 3 & 7 and they're
using play to help them understand the
things that they can't yet even vocalize
so when we observe this behavior we
decided it was about time to bring these
stuffed animals to life and transform
their existing play pattern into
something that educated something that
comforted and ultimately was fun kids
take care of Jerry by squeezing his
fingers to check his blood glucose level
swiping foods over his mouth to feed him
and using his insulin pen to give him
injections and the goal is to help Jerry
train for the all-star games which are
kind of like the Olympics kids travel
all around Jerry's world meeting up with
friends like Momo the monkey George the
vegetarian shark each one teaching them
a little something about diabetes but
most importantly empowering them to
believe that they can do anything and
that feeling that belief that you can do
anything is so incredibly important for
any child with a health condition I know
when I was a child I was diagnosed with
human growth hormone deficiency this is
me at my elementary school graduation
for two then and not a whole lot taller
when I entered high school and what that
meant is that I self administered daily
injections throughout my childhood to
grow and for me this entire experience
is really summed up in one moment after
a particularly painful injection I
remember running out of the bathroom and
grabbing a calculator starting to punch
in numbers two minutes of pain per
injection one injection per day 365 days
per year five years 3650 minutes of pain
even then I was an engineer and angry
and teary-eyed I showed this to my
parents and in that moment I felt so
entirely helpless and that feeling is
something I hope no child ever has to
experience so in 2009 when our team
responded to an online
design competition to create something
to improve the lives of children with
type 1 diabetes believe you me I felt
right at home talking to these kids
about their insulin injections and since
then in just six years four percent of
children now have a barre and for our
entire team it's so incredibly
fulfilling we have kids who are getting
over their fear of insulin injections
learning how to count their
carbohydrates but most importantly
gaining the confidence to talk about
their diabetes and on a personal level
that feeling of confidence is what I
wish I had when I was a child and what
really sets Jerry apart what I think
makes him pretty special is this
emotional connection that children form
with their bears you see when Jerry
enters the home kids don't refer to him
as a toy rather a new sibling he comes
to school with kids a placemat set for
him at the dinner table and they're
cuddling with him at night and while you
might not care too much if your toy
isn't played with for too long what
happens if your new little sibling isn't
feeling well this emotional connection
drives children to care for Jerry in an
entirely new way they feed him foods
when he's hypoglycemic because they're
actually concerned that he's ill and
this creates a sense of responsibility
and unlock something pretty unique
children develop a sense of empathy not
only for their bears but for their
parents they begin to realize that the
constant finger pricks injection sticks
pokes they're not signs of hate but
signs of love my parents care for me
just like I care for Jerry and this is
really what changes the perception
around diabetes in the home it elevates
children to the same level as their
parents to the level of caretaker and
all of the sudden they start asking
questions how many carbohydrates are in
my meal how many units of insulin are
you giving me and these stressful
moments of finger pricks and injections
they turn into conversations and not
just conversations but playtime and
that's the real power of play for these
children play has helped transform a
scary illness into something
that can actually bring giggles and
smiles to kids in fact I distinctly
remember a phone call where one of our
parents shared that after playing with
Gerry their son started to refer to his
diabetes as a superpower I think that's
pretty cool
so we're making great progress in the
world of type one diabetes but and it's
a step in the right direction but it
really only represents a snowflake on
top of a pile of snow on the tip of an
iceberg we live in the first time in
human history when the mortality rates
from chronic conditions exceed those of
infectious disease I mean we beat the
plague only to become our own worst
enemies I'm talking about things like
type-2 diabetes obesity conditions that
we bring on ourselves by our own
lifestyle and in my eyes the real
problem here is health literacy in 2003
the CDC did a study and they found that
only 12% of the population was
considered to be proficient in health
literacy so how do we do anything about
our chronic condition issues if only 12%
of the population has the ability to
read understand and act on basic health
care information so what are we doing
well we currently address chronic
conditions once they've already occurred
when people are in their 30s 40s and 50s
by trying to change the lifestyles that
they've built for their entire lives and
they say you can't teach an old dog new
tricks and really whether it's true or
not why don't we try to address these
issues sooner say in childhood well then
they say us out there they'll tell you
we just don't have the data it's so hard
to justify the efficacy of early
childhood interventions and perhaps
that's true
but what we do have are role models do
you remember
Sesame Street started in the 70s to
address issues of literacy and school
readiness in a few short years they had
an audience equal to a Super Bowl sized
group of kids tuning in every single day
and recently some economists got
together to analyze what were the
educational impacts of watching Sesame
Street it turns out kids who watch
Sesame Street are 14% less likely to be
behind in school they have GPAs that are
16% higher than their peers they have
improved vocabularies the list goes on
and what it points to is a fantastic
example of how early interventions in
childhood education can have a massive
impact I believe we need to begin
addressing issues of health literacy in
very much the same way I think that we
need to look towards our kids and do
everything in our power to set them up
for happy and healthy lives and I think
that the solution is play it's creating
fun ways for children to engage with to
understand and to communicate their
health and while it might not be a
silver bullet play is an untapped
resource for our health care system so
for a moment I'd like to invite you into
Gerry's world where our toys are a
little bit smarter and where they
leverage their inherent power to impart
meaningful lessons about health through
good old-fashioned play time thank you