KSMU: Teddy bears are the patients in a new medical exhibit at the Discovery Center in Springfield

By Michele Skalicky

There’s a new exhibit at the Discovery Center of Springfield. DCS and Children’s Mercy with Mercy came together to create the Teddy Bear Pediatric Hospital. It’s a hands-on experience where kids don medical apparel and take stuffed animal patients outfitted with computer chips through diagnostic procedures like a pulse oximeter, an x-ray machine and an MRI machine. The Discovery Center calls it part hospital, part science exhibit and part career laboratory, and it officially opened this week.

Ashley Wilson, child life services manager for Children’s Mercy with Mercy, said they’re excited about the new exhibit focused on healthcare. She said play is important for a child’s development.

"That's how they learn. That's how they explore. That's how they communicate and express themselves," said Wilson. "It's very, very important for them to have these opportunities to play because that is so familiar to them. And that's how they really, how they grow and develop over the years."

She said playing with the new equipment at the Discovery Center can help ease a child’s anxiety if they ever have to have similar tests.

See the full article via KSMU

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