The Technology:
Can you help us provide technology to more children in palliative care? Visit our Support Us page to find out how you can help.
We harness the power of technology by providing a wide variety of assistive and inclusive equipment to enhance the lives of children with life-limiting conditions using hospice services across the British Isles. Each of our packages is tailored to the needs of the children in our partners' care and has a four-year life span.
We reach around 10,000 children every year with our award winning life-changing technology. The equipment gives them an opportunity to play, create and communicate enabling them to have experiences which may otherwise be out of reach. Take a look!
Eyegaze
Eyegaze makes it possible for children with life-limiting conditions to paint a picture, play games and communicate by tracking the child’s eye movements with a special sensor. They can tell their carers what they would like to eat or drink, or tell their family that they love them, sometimes for the first time.
Virtual Reality (VR) Oculus Quest 2
Helping young people to travel to other countries, other worlds, swim with turtles or run along sandy beaches, all from the comfort of their hospice bed, wheelchair or as part of Hospice at Home services provided by our hospice partners. This is the power of VR.
Interactive Entertainment Hub
After listening to feedback from families and hospice staff, we’ve seen first-hand how important gaming is to children with life-limiting conditions. It is a vital lifeline for children - it’s a chance to play, to have fun and connect with their peers. It can level the playing field and give them access to a world where their condition is irrelevant. The hub is a portable unit packed full of accessible gaming equipment including the PlayStation 4, Xbox Series S, PlayStation VR headset, Xbox Adaptive controller, projector and large pull up screen, assistive switches, headphones, speaker and a variety of games.
Gaming is a massive part of children’s lives. It normalises everything, and being adapted eliminates the restrictions that our children meet in everyday life.”
Bluebell Wood Children hospice
iPads
The iPads we donate come with drop proof covers and are packed with special apps - there’s even an app to help non-verbal children communicate. They provide personal, portable technology that can be used on a wheelchair tray or anywhere around the hospice. Hospice at home care teams even take them with them when they visit children in their own homes. Best of all, the special speaking app means that non-verbal children can now tell their parents what they would like for dinner, whether they don’t like marmalade or how they feel.
Mobile Magic Carpet
The Mobile Magic Carpet really has to be seen to be believed. It projects moving images onto the floor (or wheelchair tray or bed) that the children can actually play with. Through the images, music and sounds, it gives them the chance to immerse themselves in a world of interactive adventures: kicking up leaves, popping bubbles, splashing in the sea or even playing football, all things that are hardly accessible for them.
Bobby has never been interested in TV or anything like that. But when the hospice received the Mobile Magic Carpet from Lifelites, it was like an instant attraction. He was immediately drawn to it and loves playing on the mat. That’s a big thing and a comfort to me because it shows he knows what it is, and shows to me that he is taking an interest in things.
PODS Sensory Tent
It’s portable, light and fun. It’s ideal for children with life-limiting conditions wherever care is provided - at a children’s hospice or in their own home. The PODS come with a theme, such as under the sea, remote controlled internal lighting, complementing sound effects, and a matching audiobook. It’s perfect for the children we support to immerse themselves in their own world and enjoy moments of sensory magic.
In early 2020, we donated our first Sensory Tent for the children of Julia’s House in Poole. Since then, it has been used in a wide variety of ways and by children of all ages at the hospice. They told us it has become a real focus for fun activities - as a chill out zone, or as a safe place to reduce anxiety.
Soundbeam
Soundbeam is an electronic musical system that uses highly sensitive contact-free movement sensors, alongside tactile switches, to provide an accessible interface for children and young people at any level of cognitive or physical ability to play as creative musicians.
“I recall one session where a young man didn’t really engage with any musical instruments at all, but he loved to play hide and seek, and so I set up the soundbeam and got a cloth and we took it in turns to hide. As the cloth and our bodies moved, the sensors created the sounds and he very quickly made the correlation between his movements and the sounds he was producing. After a few sessions together I was able to sit at the piano and accompany his soundbeam music, as he had discovered a new way in which to express himself..” Little Bridge
Switches
We provide a range of switches, or special mice which can be connected to a computer to replace mouse functions. They are suitable for children of all abilities and can be operated using any part of their body even with the side of their head or elbow or a foot. These help children unable to use a computer in conventional ways, to take control and play games, have fun, learn and express themselves.
The Tech Trunk
The 10,000 children who currently use hospice services represent only one fifth of the children who require palliative care in the British Isles. Across the country, more of the children’s hospices we support are creating or expanding Hospice at Home services to provide care for children outside the hospice walls. We know that the technology we donate can be life-changing, so to ensure that the children using these services don’t miss out, we’ve come up with the perfect solution – the Lifelites Tech Trunk! The Lifelites Tech Trunk is a wheeled case packed full of our portable technologies which Hospice at Home teams can take with them to wherever the child needs care. Each one is bespoke and created to meet the needs of each specific service.
The memories we have made over the years with the equipment provided has been invaluable and has provided deeply memorable experiences for our service users.”
Acorns Black Country
Tilt and Touch Table
The Tilt and Touch Table enables every child to take part in fun activities, or help with their education through accessible learning games. The table can, as the name implies, tilt and move up and down. So no matter if a child sits on the floor, in a wheelchair, or lays in bed, the Tilt and Touch Table enables them to play with their brothers and sisters, make new friends, paint, take control, thanks to this amazing accessible technology.
Children love to express themselves through creative activities, or explore their dreams, favourite animals, or favourite superheroes. Holding a pen can be a real challenge which is incredibly frustrating for these children. But the large screen of the Tilt and Touch Table gives every child the opportunity to take control, explore the world, paint, or draw.
