Early Intervention Power Wheelchair
So many early-intervention mobility needs have been met by enterprising creations such as Permobil’s Explorer Mini and the University of Delaware’s groundbreaking GoBabyGo adapted power toys.
But David Savage, ATP/SMS, RET, seating and mobility specialist at Children’s Specialized Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J., still saw a gap for very young children who lacked independent mobility and had complex positioning needs. And in May, his response — the early intervention Power Wheelchair (eiPWC) — won the Developers’ Showcase Audience Favorite Award at the 2025 Rehabilitation Engineering & Assistive Technology Society of North America’s (RESNA) conference in Chicago, Illinois.
The question of early intervention mobility
“One of the principles of engineering is you’re solving a problem, right?” Savage said, in explaining the genesis of the eiPWC. “My poster started with ‘What’s the problem?’
The problem is that the in-patient rehab children Savage works with “are way on the end of the spectrum in their positioning needs, if they’re going to be seeing me,” he said. “When I look at the Explorer Mini — I don’t work with the kind of kids who can use that. I think it’s great, but I don’t work with those kids.”
Savage’s clients have more complex positioning needs, and thus more complex seating equipment. What they do not yet have: Independent mobility.
In his Developers’ Showcase poster, Savage said, “Volitional movement in early development promotes cognitive perceptual development. Children with profound mental and physical disabilities are missing milestones due to their inability to move themselves through space. These same children often require supportive seating to maintain any position against gravity and have limited fine motor ability.”
Or in engineering terms: Children need to be able to move independently. “We learn how to perceive vision by moving through space,” Savage said, as one example.
Complex seating, compact base
The eiPWC combines a child’s existing seating with a compact base, such as those from Group 2 power chairs.
The system shown at RESNA’s conference (pictured) combined Sunrise Medical’s Kid-Kart seating with a compact Quantum Rehab power base, though there are many other possible seating-mobility pairings.
“The interfaces are fairly simple,” Savage said.
To demonstrate what’s achievable, the sample system was built to accommodate a child with complex conditions. It carries a ventilator and oxygen equipment, plus both switch and proportional driving controls.
The baby doll model at RESNA even had a feeding tube. Because the power base is small and the seating can be easily removed, the system is also transportable without the need for a wheelchair ramp van.
In addition to being able to carry equipment that a child with complex medical conditions might need, the eiPWC is also family friendly, since the seating is already familiar to caregivers … and because the smaller base can maneuver more easily in tight spaces and is less intimidating due to its more compact size.
That lack of intimidation is crucial, as pediatric seating specialists well know.
Savage said that when talking with parents, “It’s not ‘Do you want your kid to use a power wheelchair?’ That’s not the question. No one wants their kid [to use a power chair], until that’s what you need.”
Instead, Savage praised the University of Delaware program’s approach.
“They had an ad: ‘If you have a child between 6 months old and 3 years old who’s not yet walking, please contact us, and they can come to our lab at the University of Delaware and play with our robot,’” Savage explained. “I think that’s a beautiful way to approach people. I’m one to one with parents who already trust me, because I set up their kid in supportive seating. So when I ask, ‘Would you like them to be able to move?’,
it’s always yes.”
Bringing the Kid Appeal
The eiPWC is unlikely to be a child’s primary mobility device because children under 3 years spend a lot of time in strollers. But “that doesn’t mean you don’t still need to be able to move yourself,” Savage noted.
And the socialization opportunities for a toddler moving around in such an intriguing system can’t be beaten.
At the RESNA conference, Savage drove the eiPWC in the exhibit area … that is, when visiting kids weren’t at the controls.
He recalled a Japanese girl who, despite being unable to talk with Savage in English, saw him driving the eiPWC via remote control and took over, without needing instructions, once Savage handed her the remote.
That scenario was replayed when a group of kids came into the hospital where Savage works and also did some driving.
“The socialization factor of that, when somebody’s moving, versus a kid sitting in a supportive stroller,” he said. “It’s huge. That’s gigantic, if power mobility can help a kid be more approachable to his peers.”
What’s next for the eiPWC?
Savage said he’s talked with industry leaders, including some working for manufacturers, and gotten positive feedback, though he acknowledged, “They’re part of the choir.”
“I’d like to do some hard research,” he added, explaining that the focus of such a study would be less on the device than what its movement can accomplish. The usual Complex Rehab Technology research hurdles would be present, no doubt, “Because there’s really no one that I want to not use it. Where is it contraindicated?
“There’s a small enough pool of candidates to try it with our therapists. We have pediatric long-term care, and they want to use it with some of their kids, which would be a wonderful group to try it with,” he said, since those children stay at the hospital for longer periods. “And yet, working on it in your home environment is better.”
The eiPWC has already been vetted, Savage noted: “When we were confident that yes, we’re going to use this with kids, I brought over an electronic engineering professor from Rutgers University, who happens to be the father of one of our seating clinicians.”
The eiPWC passed muster, “so we started using it with kids,” Savage said. “I approach parents and say, ‘Would you like your child to be able to move themselves?’”
You can guess what their responses are.
“It’s a work of passion,” Savage said. “Everyone’s doing great work, but something’s missing. That’s not OK. I’m trying to fill a gap. That’s engineering. Let’s fix the problem.”
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published in the Mobility Management 2025 Seating & Positioning Handbook. To read the rest of the digital edition, click here.
