Go Baby Go!
What is Go Baby Go!
Go Baby Go! is a national program providing accessible adaptive solutions for children and adults with mobility impairment. The founder of Go Baby Go is Cole Galloway from the University of Delaware. His desire was to engineer everyday items to restore physical independence for adults and kids with disabilities. This includes adapting toy ride-on cars with things such as PVC pipe and foam to be driven by children with mobility impairments.
Adaptive Ride On Cars
The theory behind Go Baby Go! is that self-directed mobility improves the physical, social and emotional factors of children and adults with disabilities. These rides-on cars are adapted in such a way that a child can simply press a large button on the steering wheel to operate these cars to explore their environment. Many of the children who receive cars are those who cannot crawl, walk, or explore their environment independently. Research has shown that language skills, math skills, and spatial awareness are all tied to mobility status. The hope of Go Baby Go! leaders is to provide opportunities for people to be as independent with their mobility without costly devices that may or may not be funded by insurance companies.
Knights On The Go Cafe
In addition to the ride-on cars, UCF Go Baby Go! has both pediatric and adult harness systems. Knights On The Go Cafe at UCF utilizes the adaptive adult harness for survivors of stroke, TBI, and other neurological disorders. While standing and walking in the harness system, these participants have the opportunity to serve customers snacks and drinks alongside an employee of Aramark in one of the classroom buildings at UCF. This not only gives them the opportunity to stand and move with the support of the harness, but it also lends them the opportunity to speak with customers and socialize.
At the University of Central Florida (UCF), this program was started in 2015 by Dr. Jennifer Tucker, PT, DPT, PCS. The UCF Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program students are the primary volunteers. For the last 2 years, I have served as the Graduate Research Assistant for Dr. Jennifer Tucker to oversee volunteers and to assist with administrative and equipment management.
Hannah's Perspective of the Go Baby Go!
Here is the link to our school’s website for UCF Go Baby Go: https://www.ucfgobabygo.org/. Through Go Baby Go! I have had the opportunity to meet and assist people with a variety of disabilities which has led me to an increased interest in working with people of all ages with neurological disabilities. I have also seen volunteers, including myself, become more comfortable interacting with people with disabilities through increased exposure and opportunities to connect during our Go Baby Go! events. I have also seen families brought to tears when they see their child rolling around in their new car and exploring their environment independently for the first time. If you would like to nominate a child or adult to be a part of the Go Baby Go program, find a local chapter near you and contact the director requesting information about builds and harness use. Each chapter is different, but the mission is the same!
Resources
Check out the following resources for more information:
● If you are interested in learning more about what is going on in the media nationally with Go Baby Go! I encourage you to see the University of Delaware website https://sites.udel.edu/gobabygo/.
● Social Media: You can also find many chapters through Facebook and Instagram
● Want to start a chapter? Check out these contacts for others in your area who would like to start a chapter - https://sites.udel.edu/gobabygo/contact/
Here is the link to the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis that runs the Go Baby Go! Program(link).
Transcript
Kellan Julal (00:06):
Welcome to this episode of Raising Kellan Podcast, Motivates by Build, Raising kids with special needs.
Marsh Naidoo (00:18):
I am your host, Marsh Naidoo. And today we are joined by the lovely Hannah Webster, DPT. Congratulations Hannah.
Hannah Webster (00:28):
Thank you so much. Marsh.
Marsh Naidoo (00:30):
So graduation was just last month, wasn't it?
Hannah Webster (00:34):
Yes ma'am. About a month ago from right now. That's right.
Marsh Naidoo (00:37):
What are your plans moving into the future, Hannah?
Hannah Webster (00:43):
Going forward, I still need to be studying for my board exam. I take boards in July, so got a couple months until that and then still just keeping my eyes peeled for job opportunities right now. And this time with Coronavirus, it's been a little bit difficult. A lot of opportunities are the resources are focused other places, but definitely keeping my eyes peeled for a job opportunity as well.
Marsh Naidoo (01:09):
Hannah, I'm really curious about your experiences with the Go Baby Go program. Hannah is a graduate of the University of Central Florida and the Go Baby Go program actually runs at your university. Can you tell us a little bit about it, Hannah?
Hannah Webster (01:30):
Sure, absolutely. So I, for the last couple years have had the privilege of being one of the graduate research assistants for the Go Baby Go program at UCF. And essentially what Go Baby Go is it was started by a physical therapist up in Delaware and he basically saw the difficulty that kids with disabilities have in their limitations to have access to products to help them with mobility like wheelchairs and just the struggle that people have to actually get insurance to cover things like that. And with a lot of the research out there that backs up the fact that early mobility is so important for every aspect of development for kids, he had a vision of basically trying to make mobility more accessible for kids and make it more affordable. And so he basically took ride-on cars, which there, there's like these little powered Fisher Price and various other brands, little cars that kids can ride on.
(02:38):
And he basically took everyday objects like full noodles and PDC Pipe and Velcro and some power tools and decided to make a makeshift adaptive ride on car for kids with disabilities that would be easier for them to operate to give them opportunities to be mobile. And so that vision started out there in the northeast area and then has spread to a number of different universities around the US including the University of Central Florida. And so at UCF we have a couple different initiatives. We have the adaptive ride on cars and that specifically is for children around Florida who have disabilities and aren't able to walk, aren't able to really be mobile and independent on their own. And what we actually do is we get in contact with the families who submit applications and free of charge to these families. We actually build cars for their children and we invite them to come and be a part of the build process to see how we're putting them together.
(03:44):
We customize the cars to be specifically designed for whatever the kid likes. So they really like Paw Patrol, we buy Paw Patrol stickers and if they really like things that are orange, then we buy orange tool noodles and orange buttons for the steering wheel and things like that. So we really try and make it try and make mobility accessible and fun and cost-effective for these families. And that program is overseen by a physical therapist who makes sure that the car is safe and adapted adequately for the kid to make sure that they can ride in it safely.
Marsh Naidoo (04:22):
Hannah, what I really appreciate about Cole Galloway's program is that he just doesn't center that at the University of Delaware, but he's actually gone ahead to branch that nationwide. So parents living in Tennessee or Montana or New Mexico, how can they find a resource that's near them of where they can take their child to have a right on car adapted for that child?
Hannah Webster (04:55):
Yeah, absolutely. So some of those main universities where the initiative was started, they clearly have Go Baby Go chapters, but there are also chapters at a number of different universities around the country. And so there's a website and that actually has an archive of different Go Baby Go chapters around the country. And so if any of your friends have interests in getting a Go Baby go car to a family in need with maybe a kid who is not yet walking, not really moving independently and fits the different qualifications of getting a car, then they could definitely look into a chapter that's nearby. And I know for the University of Central Florida, we had families come from all over the state who would come to basically be a part of our builds and we would have families from Tallahassee and Jacksonville and Lakeland and South Florida as well. And that was kind of more the exception, but definitely those chapters are willing to help families if the families are okay with sometimes traveling a bit <laugh>.
Marsh Naidoo (06:04):
And I think that I'm just actually reading through here that Resource Hannah and I think that's GBGconnect.com, so that obviously that stands for Go Baby connect.com. So that would be a good resource to check out and I'll make sure that I link that up in the show notes as well. Hannah was exceptionally good to us and she's actually composed a contributed to writing a blog on GBG (Go baby Go). Obviously, as the name suggests is applied to more pediatric population. Can you tell us about the other program that you guys run nights on the Go Cafe? What is that about?
Hannah Webster (06:48):
Yes, absolutely. So once Cole Galloway really got this vision for helping kids with mobility challenges other people started to realize, okay, it's not only just kids who have trouble getting access to products that will make them more mobile, but there are adults with disabilities out there as well. People who have had traumatic brain injuries strokes, spinal cord injuries, rare brain tumors, things like that who have a hard time getting around and have a hard time being mobile and being social with other people. And so that's kind of where the harness system came into play. And so what we have at the University of Central Florida is called Knights on the Go Cafe and it is actually kind of like a concession stand type of a cafe with drinks and snacks and it's actually set up in one of our classroom buildings. And underneath is there, you have this cafe where there's a worker from Aramark and they are working alongside a survivor of stroke or TBI.
(07:55):
And that person who has been impacted by disability is wearing an adaptive harness, which is connected to an over structure that's actually surrounding the cafe. And when they're in the harness, it allows them to move around with more support. And so what we've actually done is we've run some studies through the NIH toolbox where we take kind of pre-participation data on things like walking speed, walking, endurance grip strength, dexterity, and even some cognitive and emotional measures. And we take those before people participate in the cafe and then we take them a couple months after. And what we've seen is we've seen changes in the ability that people are able to stand up for periods of time and even walking speed. And we've also seen that it can have an impact on emotional status too because these people who might otherwise be at home and be isolated from people, have opportunities to socialize with students, socialize with the cafe worker and they also have the opportunity to socialize with physical therapy and speech therapy students who come and assist those participants in the cafe as well. So it's a really, really amazing initiative because it's, it benefits so many people, it provides an opportunity for students to come and grab a snack in a classroom building, which is just convenient, but it also provides an opportunity for that person with a disability to really engage more with their environment, to have conversations with people, to share more about their story and honestly to feel like they can participate in life a little bit more with the help of that harness. So it's really been an amazing thing at the University of Central Florida.
Marsh Naidoo (09:42):
Wow. Is that more like a volunteer position or is it more an employee position? How does a person apply to that program? Hannah, how does that work?
Hannah Webster (09:54):
Yeah, so the families of the people that have the disabilities can apply online and then over the supervision of Dr. Jennifer Tucker, she's my supervisor and the one who started the Go Baby Go chapter at UCF she and a team of physical therapists, they assess the candidates and they basically see what the mobility challenges are and they look at the whole picture and they can consider the different applicants and see if someone would be a good fit to benefit from something like that.
Marsh Naidoo (10:35):
Guys, we're gonna take just a little break right now, so go ahead and grab that cup of coffee. This episode was recorded after Hannah's graduation, this May with her DPT, which is a doctor of physical therapy. I met Hannah together with Marina Wright and Jackie Butch at the American Physical Therapy Conference earlier this year in Denver. This was PreCovid. You can listen to the three of us chatting on episode 11 of the Raising Kellan Podcast. So check that out. Congratulations to Marina Wright. You are now starting your job as a physical therapist at the Shandy Clinic in Colorado. So shout out to you Mariner Hannah. This episode was taped in June, however it is July the third and this episode is being edited and will be published today. So happy birthday Hannah. We are all collectively sending you good wishes for today as well as positivity for your upcoming boards. Thank you as well for doing your right up on the Go Baby Go program. And so parents that are listening, if you wanna find out about local chapters, check out the raisingkellan.org website for that information. And now back to the program.
Marsh Naidoo (12:17):
Hannah, going back to the Go Baby Go program. How old would a child need to be before a parent can apply for the program? Are you looking at a specific age or does that child need to be at a specific milestone in order to apply for the program or how does that work?
Hannah Webster (12:39):
Yeah, so ideally based on the size of the cars some of the limitations are the kid really should not be larger than about 30 or 40 pounds, the upper weight limits for the car. And it really is best if the kid can sit with a little bit of support and also they need to have an element of head control as well because in order to sit up and operate the car, if a child doesn't have head control and if they have any instability in the neck, things like that, there are a couple things that need to be screened out before a child is actually cleared to come and receive a car because we wanna make sure that they're gonna be able to safely sit with a little bit of movement side to side and that kind of thing. So really it's best for kids that can sit with a little bit of extra support.
Marsh Naidoo (13:35):
What I thought was really amazing was that how you'll adapt to the actual steering wheel itself, <affirmative> to where y'all had this large switch that fits onto the steering wheel now that apparently now if you press that the car is able to move forward and just forward. How
Hannah Webster (13:54):
Does Yes, <laugh>? Okay. Yes. So basically on the traditional adaptive ride on cars or typical ride on cars, it's operated by a switch, which is actually kind of challenging for people to use if you don't have really good fine motor control with just being able to control things with your fingers. And so what we do is we actually rewire these cars and use these really big buttons that are a lot easier for a kid to be able to push with their hand or with their chest to make the car go. And like you said, the cars can go forward and the parents can sometimes help with the steering for the kids but really what the goal of using such a big steering object is the idea that if you make it a little bit easier for that kid to independently propel that car, then you're giving them opportunities to control their movement and their environment and explore. And that's amazing. Some of these kids have not been able to really even have any control over being able to explore their environment and that is really, really challenging. And so the goal is to be able to make the car as accessible as possible to that kid
Marsh Naidoo (15:08):
And self-directed, right self-directed movement.
Hannah Webster (15:12):
Definitely.
Marsh Naidoo (15:13):
So the benefits here for the child are both cognitive social, <affirmative> emotional as well as fine emotional, right?
Hannah Webster (15:24):
<affirmative>? Yes. And really what a lot of parents have shared is that once their kid for kids that really use the car and get a lot of use out of it, what we see is those kids actually start to start talking and they start to start moving more on their own even without the car. And so sometimes it just takes more of that self-directed exploration for some of the other components of learning and development to really spark because those kids are being stimulated by more things in the environment and that is incredible.
Marsh Naidoo (16:01):
Hannah, how are you guys going to expand this program at ucf? What is in the pipeline for the future?
Hannah Webster (16:10):
Absolutely. So I know there's a lot of exciting stuff coming up, but I did wanna share specifically one of the things that I think has had the biggest impact on our community is actually transitioning to having kids from school age kids in our community be the ones who actually build these cars for the children with disabilities. So a group of physical therapy students from UCF will go into an elementary or middle school and we will split up into groups and actually train school age kids how to build these cars and we'll teach them about why we're building these cars and why it's important that we provide mobility for kids that can't move and kids that can't get around they can. And then we will we'll let those kids meet families and actually give the cars to the recipients. And that has been a really special thing to see how a lot of these children are really moved by that and they get it excited, they get excited that they're able to make these kids with disabilities be able to move around the room like they can.
(17:18):
So that has been really special and it's been really encouraging to just see the way that has even just widened the awareness of disability for both the physical therapy students myself and also for school-age kids around the Orlando area and definitely have to give props to Dr. Tucker and the whole Go Baby go team for really just seeing that this opportunity is much bigger than just us putting together cars, but it's an opportunity for advocacy and it's an opportunity for building awareness and doing that at a very early age for some of these school kids who may have never met someone who's different than they're with a disability
Marsh Naidoo (17:57):
Promoting inclusion
Hannah Webster (17:59):
<affirmative>. Absolutely. It's beautiful.
Marsh Naidoo (18:02):
Hannah, thank you so much for taking the time to come and speak to us today about this awesome program. We value your time as well as your expertise and we look forward to hearing more from you in the future.
Hannah Webster (18:17):
Marsh, thank you so much. It's been great to share with you guys. And yeah, I love what you guys are doing at Raising Kellen. It's really inspirational and I appreciate you having me on the show.
Marsh Naidoo (18:28):
Thank you, Hannah. And we usually end off our show with as always guys, remember to get to the top of that mountain. This is Marsh Naidoo signing off.