Adventures Teach First Aid

August 8, 2003
Reviewed by Jinny Gudmundsen

A honeybee stings your child. Would he or she know that they need to remove the stinger? Would they know what to do if they burned themselves while taking a pizza out of the oven?

These first aid questions are addressed in “D.M. Dinwiddie, Physician-in-Training,” a new interactive software title.

Developed by Health Media Lab with grants from the National Institutes of Health, the software teaches children to identify and treat 12 common medical conditions: burns, choking, insect bites and stings, bumps and bruises, cuts and bleeding, sunburn, sprains and broken bones, food poisoning, common cold, influenza, tonsillitis and appendicitis.

Kids gain this medical knowledge by becoming D.M. Dinwiddie, a 12-year old girl or boy (player’s choice) who is earning a Medical Arts Achievement Badge. Through a series of interactive adventures, D.M. finds injured characters in her virtual neighborhood, including her little brother who has an insect bite.

By looking at and talking to the injured characters, and then using a special MedLab (an onscreen database that serves as a reference and diagnostic guide) and her first-aid kit, D.M. is able to diagnose and treat the hurt people.

Parents, this title does and excellent job of teaching first aid in an interactive setting.

Although its graphical presentation is simplistic, kid-testers enjoyed playing through the 12 adventures and welcomed learning first aid by helping virtual people instead of simply memorizing medical conditions.

Reprinted from www.computingwithkids.com 2003