Learning about illness through play

Living with a disease can be traumatic for a child. That's why Hannah Chung, the co-founder of Sproutel, and a couple of local people decided to make toys for children diagnosed with a chronic illness.

Sproutel makes toys for children diagnosed with a disease, that help them learn and cope through play. They are starting with Diabetes, and branching out to Asthma and Obesity. The goal is to create behavioral changes at a young age that can positively affect the 30 million children currently diagnosed with these diseases over their lifetimes.

Sproutel came to Providence to participate in the Beta Spring accelerator program. They wanted to be in the community to work on the business fulltime.

The first product, Jerry the Bear , teaches children with Type 1 Diabetes how to monitor their blood glucose levels, maintain a healthy diet, and recognize their symptoms. Jerry connects to the web wirelessly, allowing parents to track learning and providing software upgrades that keep children engaged.

The bear is geared toward smaller children. Jerry is for children with type-1 diabetes in the age group of 3 to 9.

Parents can get Jerry the Bear at www.jerrythebear.com/preorder by joining the beta family. The beta bears will be available in March 2013, full launch will be in November of 2013.