This has to be one of the best stories of 2007 in my opinion.
Consider your baby for a moment. He likely explores everything: putting things into his mouth, scooting around the coffee table and pulling things down. Babies learn by exploring and those constant messes, toddles, and everything else that goes with having a toddler is all part of the normal developmental experience.
What if your baby couldn’t move? What if his legs or arms were impaired in some way and his ability to explore was hampered? How would that impact his development? If you’re guessing that it would have a profound impact on his development, you’re right. Babies who can’t explore and thus take in information as they “normally” would are set up for developmental delays. Until now.
Researchers at the University of Delaware are changing all that. They have developed a robot, something that looks like a bumper car with a Bumbo seat, that is driven by moving a simple joystick. It’s so easy a baby could do it! The robot allows infants with special needs, to explore their environment more freely–as freely as you can with a bumper car and it’s being touted as a pretty significant break through.
Doctors in the UK have been developing motorized mobility for toddlers for several years now. However, it has been assumed that because of safety issues, the earliest a child could be considered for such a device is 4 or 5.
However, the problem is that cognition explodes once an infant starts exploring. Giving them the ability to explore could really enhance their prognosis over the long term. The robots are still in the experimental stage and it will be at least a few years before they become available to parents of disabled infants.
I’m very blessed that all my children are very healthy and active. Those of us who find ourselves moaning and groaning over the newest mess our toddler created should rather be thankful. However, I’m hopeful that babies with muscular or orthopedic needs will soon be able to explore their world too.