Virtually all children experience some degree of psychological stress as patients in the emergency department (ED), and about 15% suffer such stress that they require an intervention to allow care processes to continue. Anxiety is more prevalent and severe in children with psychiatric problems, spectrum disorders and cognitive impairment from prior brain injury. Moreover, parental perception of their child’s fear can amplify the stress response, negatively affecting the child’s recall of the entire ED visit, which in turn can contribute to long-term threat perception and future avoidance of emergency care. Therefore, an urgent and critical need exists for a low cost, low risk method to reduce child and parental anxiety in the ED.