Use of educational toys improves basic life support education in school children: Study

Spain: A recent study has shown that the use of specific didactic material with images forcing hands-on activity is more effective in teaching basic life support (BLS) skills to school children than a cuddly toy or manikin. The study is published in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. 

Including basic life support training in the school curriculum with the support of other community strategies are highly correlated to an increase in bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Therefore, many schools in different parts of the world have implemented CPR education in the last decade. Cristina Varela-Casal, REMOSS Research Group, Faculty of Education and Sport Sciences, University of Vigo, Vigo, Spain, and colleagues aimed to compare traditional basic life support education with specific and innovative educative didactic material that has been previously designed and validated.

The study included 15 classes of schoolchildren aged 5 to 8 years (n = 237). They were randomly assigned to o 4 groups in which different didactic and complementary materials were used: (1) the Rescube tool with a cuddly toy (n = 61), (2) the Endless Book tool with a cuddly toy (n = 74), (3) traditional teaching with a cuddly toy (n = 46), and (4) traditional teaching with a manikin (n = 55).

Varela-Casal and the team then assessed BLS sequence at baseline (T0). Following this, children took part in a one-hour theory and practice session in their assigned training modality. BLS sequence was assessed again within one week (T1) and after one month (T2).