At the Munroe-Meyer Institute, our GoBabyGo! Nebraska! program continues to provide play, peer interaction and self-directed mobility to children with mobility challenges through customized ride-on toy cars.
Each year, our team from MMI and UNMC hosts two large community events in Omaha and one in Kearney, providing families with free, modified ride-on cars designed to meet their child’s unique needs. More than 75 volunteers help power these events, gaining hands-on training while giving back to the community. Volunteers include engineering, occupational therapy and physical therapy students from UNMC, the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Creighton University, as well as community members.
With the financial support of the University of Nebraska Foundation and the Children’s Health and Research Institute (CHRI), we were able to expand our community work to include research. Families participated in a project that tracked the use of ride-on toy cars over a three-month period.
The research found that children who were provided with “driving” opportunities in their local community reported high levels of enjoyment. Importantly, greater usage was linked to improvements in children’s power mobility learning. Families also helped us understand their needs, their preferences for educational resources that support ride-on toy car use, as well as barriers to their use, which will guide us in improving the program.
This work has been shared nationally at conferences and is helping us better understand how early powered mobility can support children’s development. We remain grateful to the MMI Guild, NU Foundation, student volunteers, and, the families and the community partners who make GoBabyGo! Nebraska! possible. We are excited to continue building both cars and opportunities for children to move, play and explore their world.