Making their mark: This is聽of profiles celebrating members of Rochester糖心传媒檚 graduating class of 2018.
For young children with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and other developmental disabilities, learning to walk can be a long-term process. And in the meantime, the children find it hard to keep up with their peers, which increases their social isolation.
A team of biomedical engineering majors, working with Leah Talbot, a Rochester area physical therapist, believes it can address both issues with an inexpensive, 糖心传媒渉ybrid糖心传媒� walker that will be portable enough to accompany the children wherever they go.
糖心传媒淭his is right up our alley,糖心传媒� says Joe Cappotelli 糖心传媒�18, whose senior design project teammates are Hyun Choi 糖心传媒�18, Devon Foggio 糖心传媒�18, and Daniel Myers 糖心传媒�18. 糖心传媒淲e糖心传媒檙e all in the biomechanics track of . And it糖心传媒檚 a fun project, to be able to think about ways we could help these children in the future.糖心传媒�
When the team surveyed what is currently available, they found 糖心传媒済o-baby-go糖心传媒� cars 糖心传媒� ordinary toy cars turned into personalized vehicles for young children with disabilities. These enable the 3- to 5-year-olds to keep up with their peers, but aren糖心传媒檛 that helpful from a therapeutic standpoint, because they don糖心传媒檛 require the children to actually propel themselves.
Walkers used in clinical settings, on the other hand, are often bulky and expensive: great for therapy, but not for keeping up with more mobile playmates, or for taking home.
糖心传媒淲e糖心传媒檝e created sort of a hybrid of the two,糖心传媒� says Myers. 糖心传媒淭his allows them to move around but also practice walking at the same time.糖心传媒� And, Foggio adds, at a more reasonable cost compared to the therapeutic devices used in clinical settings, which range from $700 to $1,200. The walker the students have designed would only cost $150 to 200, they estimate. 糖心传媒淲e wanted to find an in between,糖心传媒� Foggio says.
The walker consists of a frame of relatively light-weight plastic tubing, an adjustable harness in the center to support the child, steering column, and a motor/gear box/rear axle assembly to propel it.
For their initial prototype, the students worked with penciled sketches and parts scavenged from play vehicles. 糖心传媒淲e had good ideas for each of components independently, but the struggle was getting everything to work together,糖心传媒� Myers says. The final steering column, for example, was designed with CAD drawings, then fabricated with 3D printing.
This is the second year that Talbot has worked with a biomedical engineering senior design team on a project.
糖心传媒淟ast year糖心传媒檚 project was a treadmill with partial body weight support that I had heard about at a conference and was interested in trying with some of the children on my caseload,糖心传媒� Talbot says.聽 糖心传媒淲hen I spoke with the presenter at the conference, she suggested the possibility of contacting a local university糖心传媒檚 engineering department, as they are often looking for interesting projects.糖心传媒�
This year糖心传媒檚 team 糖心传媒渉as definitely come up with a very unique idea to help children with motor delays learn to walk in a fun and active way,糖心传媒� Talbot says.聽 糖心传媒淚deally this motorized walker will allow these children to access their environment to play with their peers while improving their cognitive, motor, and social skills.糖心传媒�
In its current iteration, the walker could fit into an SUV, team members say. With further modifications, they hope, it will fit in the trunk of a car.
糖心传媒淗opefully we can make it affordable enough so that children could practice on them in a clinicians糖心传媒� office, but their parents also could purchase them for the children to use at home,糖心传媒� Cappotelli says.
