Developing an interactive soft toy (‘sasha the bear’) to support refugee children’s communication with healthcare professionals: a preliminary hybrid-object design study

Refugee children often encounter significant language barriers, psychosocial trauma, and cultural misunderstandings that compromise the quality of their healthcare experiences. To address these challenges, this paper introduces Sasha the Bear: a low-resource, child-friendly innovation designed to improve clinical communication between immigrant/refugee children and healthcare providers. The solution comprises a physical teddy bear to foster emotional comfort and trust, and a virtual interface that leverages a language model for translation. Using a human-centered design methodology and iterative prototyping, we adapted ‘Sasha The Bear’ specifically for Ukrainian refugee children aged 2 to 12. By reducing dependence on human interpreters, for low-risk, routine interactions, it alleviates logistical challenges, shortens consultation times, and minimizes frustration arising from miscommunication. Moreover, the teddy bear component provides immediate comfort in clinical settings, accounting for trauma and learned behaviours that may hinder open dialogue. This dual approach: a tangible item to bolster emotional well-being and an AI-based translator to bridge language gaps, demonstrates feasibility for resource-limited contexts. Ultimately, Sasha the Bear offers a scalable, culturally adaptable strategy aimed at improving health outcomes and patient satisfaction among refugee and minority populations. This paper reports a preliminary, formative design phase; evaluation is qualitative and feasibility-oriented.