While “early intervention” is a common term to describe introducing independent mobility devices to very young children, are those words truly accurate?
Amy Morgan, PT, ATP, National Clinical Education Manager for Permobil, doesn’t think so.
“It’s not really ‘early,” she explained. “It’s on time. This is not early intervention; this is on-time intervention. It’s intervening earlier than we have in the past, but it’s on time.”
In Mobility Management’s latest podcast, Morgan shares the microphone with Cole Galloway,PT, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Delaware and the founder of the Go Baby Go mobility program that’s been lauded and replicated around the world.
In the podcast, Galloway explains why independent mobility is so crucial for the young child. “All of these issues with pediatric technology, especially with the youngest, the ones that are under a year — everything comes through what adults feel that child needs and deserves,” he said.
Galloway defines mobility as a human right, one that’s too often withheld from very young children with disabilities. “It’s much easier to get a powered mobility device for a 16-year-old after a spinal cord injury than it is to get a powered mobility device for a 16-month-old with a spinal cord injury,” Galloway noted in the podcast. “We can’t say any longer that we don’t know mobility is important. That’s age discrimination.”
Morgan and Galloway also give behind-the-scenes details on Permobil’s new Explorer Mini, a power mobility device especially designed for the very young child.
“Just being successful at moving myself somewhere is huge for a child,” Morgan said. “[The Explorer Mini] has gone through probably the most intensive design process of any of our wheelchairs.”
Listen to the pediatric mobility podcast featuring Cole Galloway and Amy Morgan, and then check out Mobility Management’s library of podcasts, available for on-demand listening.
