The Dream Robot: A Social Robot for Delivering Medical Hypnosis to Children in Hospitals
Judith Weda, Mike E.U. Ligthart, Amke Elise Klompmaker, Anouk Neerincx, Sobhaan ul Husan, Sofie Veld, Fleur M. Hendriks, Mirjam de Haas, Arine Vlieger, Matthijs Smakman, Simone Marijke de Droog
Invasive medical procedures can cause significant anxiety in children, affecting both immediate and long-term healthcare experiences. This paper introduces the Dream Robot, a social robot designed to deliver a medical hypnosis intervention to reduce anxiety in pediatric hospitals. Through in-situ pilots during blood draws, anesthesia induction, and feeding tube placement, we examined how children, parents, and clinicians engaged with robot-guided medical hypnosis. Our findings indicate that such interventions can support children's coping, but only when aligned with developmental differences, procedural timing, and social dynamics between child, parent, and medical professionals.