Social Skills and Early Powered Mobility

Assistive Technology published research on social skills and early powered mobility.  The participants included 23 children with physical disabilities between the ages of 18 months and 6 years of age.  Data was collected at wheelchair evaluation, wheelchair delivery, and approximately 6 months later.   The following results were seen:

• significant increases were found in parental perceptions of positive social skills for younger children after receiving a wheelchair
• slightly older children showed improvements in social skills before the wheelchair was received
• no changes were found in negative social skills
• parental ratings also indicated a significantly greater difficulty remaining engaged in tasks after receiving a wheelchair
• a significant increase was noted in the number of mobility activities during indoor free play but no difference was seen in interaction with toys or objects
• improvement in the qualitative level of outdoor interactive free play was reported but there was no change in verbal interactions. 

Reference: Guerette P, Furumasu J, Tefft D. The positive effects of early powered mobility on children's psychosocial and play skills. Assist Technol. 2013 Spring;25(1):39-48; quiz 49-50.

Modifying Motorized Cars for Powered Mobility

Pediatric Physical Therapy is offering free access to an informative article on how to modify off the shelf motorized cars for early powered mobility for children with physical disabilities.  The article is entitled, Modified Ride-on Toy Cars for Early Power Mobility: A Technical Report, and it describes a variety of car models along with how they differ.  It provides suggestions on how to modify seating, steering and drive systems including how to use a push button switch to drive!  All the suggestions appear to be simple to carry out with a few tools and readily available supplies.  This article is awesome if you are considering early powered mobility for young children.  So detailed and wonderful pictures.  You can view the article at Pediatric Physical Therapy.   

Reference: Huang, Hsiang-Han OT, ScD; Galloway, James C. PT, PhD. Technical Report Modified Ride-on Toy Cars for Early Power Mobility: A Technical Report. Pediatric Physical Therapy:Summer 2012 - Volume 24 - Issue 2 - p 149–154 doi: 10.1097/PEP.0b013e31824d73f9