Design Day is one week away! We have completed our poster as shown below.

We were able to test our device at a GoBabyGo build where 7 children were fitted for their individual toy cars. We were able to have 4 children ranging from ages 20 months to 4 years, all with different diagnoses and substantially different abilities, successfully use it, and speculate that 6 out of the 7 children would be able to efficaciously use our adjustable design. The data is presented in the poster, in which the children were scored on a scale of 1-5 in 5 categories of use in both their own, individualized car, and our adjustable car. We have shown improved benefit in our design as compared to the previous design, as well as proved ability to be used in multiple children. Parents and occupational therapists were very impressed with our design, noting that a car like ours would be more beneficial than the GoBabyGo car for their children as they grow and develop. Here are some photos from that day:

We are excited to get this car into the Susan Gray School where we anticipate that around 6 children will be able to benefit from it. See you at Design Day!

This week we were able to finalize the wiring of the button, allowing the car to be accelerated via the steering wheel instead of a foot pedal. This accommodates children with lower body limitations or low muscle tone. We were also able to make significant progress on our final presentation poster in preparation for design day in just over 3 weeks.

Next steps from a design standpoint include purchasing Plastidip in order to coat exposed metal pieces with plastic. This is necessary for the safety of the toy, as the exposed metal pieces on the steering wheel and seat can pose a potential safety hazard. We also need to move the dial adjusting the speed to a more accessible location for easy adjustment by a therapist, teacher, or parent. This dial works by adjusting the current passing through to the motor by increasing or decreasing the resistance of the speed controller.

Once these final modifications are complete, we will work on getting the car into the Susan Gray School ASAP. Without IRB approval, we won’t be able to conduct research and collect quantitative data, but the occupational therapists at the school will be able to asses the functionality of the toy. As we have kept in mind throughout the project, we define success by utility of the toy in any capacity, as previous adapted toy designs have just collected dust in a closet. If our design is easy, accessible, and fun enough for a child to actually use on a regular basis, we have succeeded in our design goals.

Future long term directions of the project are to develop a fully customizable kit in which parents or therapists can purchase online with the specific parts they deem to be most applicable to their child. This requires the manufacturing capability to standardize dimensions and parts to be implementable in a variety of toy cars, instead of only a single Lightning McQueen. Parts in the kit would include not only our designs we have used on our car, but also additional designs such as a tray, neck support, other types of steering handles, and more.

This past Wednesday we had our 4th design build. In this build we accomplished many goals, including installing the kickboard seats. To do this, we measured placements for cutouts in the styrofoam in which the PVC connectors can be placed in a male-female connector fashion. The circular cutouts in the styrofoam were cut using a box cutter at a slightly smaller diameter of the PVC connector such that the seat can have a tight, secure, and safe fit. The kickboard was installed and showed to be very sturdy, necessary for the safety of our design. A speed controller was also installed successfully. (photos attached)

For our next build, we need to finalize the back rest and finish the wire connections between the button and motor such that the car’s acceleration can be achieved via the button on the steering wheel. We have collectively decided that initial plans to install a tray and an external battery charging port will not be necessary for the success of the design.

Additionally, we had originally planned to collaborate with Alyssa Harding, a Belmont School of Occupational Therapy Graduate student, who is researching these devices for her graduate project. She intended to collect data on the vehicle after implementation in to the Susan Gray school, however, due to IRB approval delay and thus delayed progression of her project, she had to withdraw in order to pursue a different project to fulfill her semester requirements. We still plan on giving the finished product to the Susan Gray School and receiving feedback from the therapists and students. Although, we will not be able to receive the quantitate data Alyssa’s research could have provided, we will have substantial qualitative feedback on the design for future direction and modification improvements.

In addition to finalizing the design and implementing it into the Susan Gray School, we also are beginning to put together our poster for design day. The poster will lay out our research model and design progression, including background, needs assessment, methods, results, conclusions, and figures.