all of the following criteria: be between 7 and 12 years old have eaten their last meal three hours or more prior to venipuncture have no neurodevelopmental delay, including verbal difficulty have had venipuncture less than once per year Children were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups: the control group, where venipuncture was performed without distraction (Group C); the active distraction experimental group, where venipuncture was performed while the mother distracted the child (Group M); and the passive distraction experimental group, where venipuncture was performed while the child watched a TV cartoon (Group TV). There were 23 children in each group; the average age and gender ratios of each group are shown in Table 1. The mothers in Group M were instructed to "actively distract their children during the venipuncture by speaking, caressing, and soothing them." The children in Group TV were placed in a room in front of a television; the cartoon started at least two minutes before the venipuncture took place, and the only distraction offered was an invitation for the child to watch the cartoon when it started playing. This study used the Oucher scale to assess pain in the children. The Oucher scale, a "validated visual pain scale scoring from 0 (no pain) to 100 (maximum pain)," has two separate scales to help children identify their pain level. The scale from 0 to 100 is placed alongside six photographs of children in various levels of discomfort; children in the report were asked to use the pictures as an aid for choosing a numerical value to represent their pain level. Parents of the children were also asked to assess their child's pain levels on the same scale, basing their assessment on the child's external indication of pain and not the child's reported score. The results of Bellieni's study suggest that passive distraction is more effective than active distraction in lessening perceived pain from venipuncture, although active distraction does have some effect in lessening perceived pain. The average scores on the Oucher scale for Group C, Group M, and Group TV were 23.04, 17.39, and 8.91, respectively; with standard deviation 24.57, 21.36, and 8.65, also respectively. Even taking these fluctuations in data into account, it is apparent that the passive distraction technique significantly lowered the perceived pain when compared to the control group and the active distraction group, according to both parents and children. These results