Page 22 - Mobility Management, June 2017

Pediatric Series
Alternative Drive Controls
effect often will impact the device chosen to start with. If cause and effect have not been established, and the team feels that a simple device is needed to evaluate the child’s ability to learn cause and effect, then a single switch that allows the wheelchair to move in a single direction may be chosen.”
A proportional input device might be chosen “if the child understands cause and effect, and the team is trying to allow the child to understand how to manipulate the
power wheelchair, and the child has appropriate
movement to control a joystick,” Doherty said. “The team needs to keep in mind that there is not an exact formula to follow. The decision can vary per the individual child’s needs.”
Other relevant criteria can include a child’s age, mobility experience, clinical diagnosis and function. “It is a very indi- vidual decision,” Doherty added.
Advantage: Switches
For young power chair users, what potential advantages do switch systems offer?
“Switch systems are simpler to use in the way that you press the switch and you will only go in the direc-
tion the switch activates, as well as a set speed that is programmed into the system ‘on/off,’” Doherty said. “Since switches represent only one direction of
control, they tend to be simpler for children to pick up.
Is the Future of Pediatric Power a Wild Thing?
It is a fact that even the smallest pediatric power wheelchairs can engulf their littlest users. Systems of frames, batteries, electronics and power positioning can look and feel overwhelming to young consumers and their families.
What if there were a better way to introduce power mobility to small children?
Power Wheels & Go Baby Go
The Wild Thing seeks to redirect pediatric power mobility conver- sations. Originally created by toymaker Fisher-Price, it’s being reimagined by Stealth Products and Trident Research, a systems engineering company in Austin, Texas, that primarily works with the military but also enjoys moonlighting with Stealth Products.
During an unrelated trip to Toys R Us, Romero saw a picture of Wild Thing on the side of a Power Wheels box. Unlike other Power Wheels models, which resemble automotive vehicles, Wild Thing is a design unto itself, a round, whirling contraption powered not by a foot pedal like other Power Wheels, but by hand controls.
After investigating Wild Thing, Romero located the person who’d created the toy.
“I found the designer, an industrial designer for Fisher-Price,” he said. “I reached out to him and said, ‘This is super cool. Let me tell you about us and our industry.’”
A Niche for Wild Thing
By all accounts (Galloway’s and Romero’s), Fisher-Price has warmly welcomed news of its Power Wheels toys being made more accessible to children with mobility impairments. Romero said Wild Thing’s developer, who’d been contracted to design the vehicle, relayed all the information he could, then put Romero in touch with a Fisher-Price contact.
“We reached out and surprisingly enough, in a couple of days we got a response,” Romero said. “He thought it was the coolest thing, what we were doing. We showed him videos of kids driving power wheelchairs with the i-Drive system, and said we thought we could bring our i-Drive system into Wild Thing. He said, ‘This is what we wanted.’ Fisher-Price wanted somebody to take it to the next level. They said, ‘What do you need?’”
Romero said Fisher-Price sent several complimentary Wild Thing vehicles and shared information about the toy’s electronics. Working from that, Trident Research had Stealth’s i-Drive alter- native driving controls system connected to Wild Thing and was driving the toy within a few days.
Driving Future Power Chair Use
Stealth Products’ version of Wild Thing will feature i-Drive Basic, a control system with i-Drive functionality and a specific connection to Wild Thing. Tarta pediatric seating is Wild Thing compatible,
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Wild Thing in Stealth Products’ booth at the International Seating Symposium in March.
Wild Thing is one of Fisher- Price’s popular Power Wheels battery-driven toys; other Power Wheels configurations include scaled-down versions of Cadillac Escalades and Ford Mustangs.
Power Wheels are well known in pediatric mobility circles thanks to the Go Baby Go early-intervention project run by Cole Galloway, Ph.D., at the University of Delaware. For years, Galloway has intro- duced independent mobility to kids with such conditions
as spina bifida and Down syndrome by putting them in Power Wheels with simply modified hand controls and positioning constructed from pool noodles and PVC pipes.
Whenever Go Baby Go came up, Gabriel Romero, Stealth Products’ VP of sales & marketing, wished for more.
“I think [Go Baby Go] is great,” he said. “But every time I looked at it, I knew something bigger could be done with it.”
22 JUNE 2017 | MOBILITY MANAGEMENT MobilityMgmt.com