Shriners Children’s Therapists Refine Innovative Infant Mobility Toy

This article is part of an ongoing series spotlighting the innovative research of providers throughout the Shriners Children's system. Read another here.

What good is an invention if you can’t get it to consumers? Just ask Henry Ford. He created the assembly line and other manufacturing firsts to make his Ford Model T available and affordable for millions of middle-class Americans.

Physical therapists Scott Jerome and Matt Lowell of Shriners Children’s Salt Lake City faced a similar dilemma with their pediatric mobility device, although on a much smaller scale. Smaller in the sense that the Baby Bug Learning Toy (BBLT) was created with a select population in mind, infants with mobility impairments, and in the sense that the members of that population are, in fact, babies.

But the impact of the two-motor mobility chair has already proven huge for its users and their families, and it’s about to get bigger thanks to a new collaboration between Shriners Children’s and Utah State University. Together, they’ve simplified the design of the BBLT to allow for easier and faster production, putting it in more (tiny) hands of those who need it than ever before.

Starting Strong

A product of the hospital’s wheelchair, seating and mobility department, the BBLT was first designed by Ken Kozole, BSME, OTR/L, in 2020 before retiring from Shriners Children’s Salt Lake City. The BBLT was further developed by Lowell, Jerome and other members of the team to provide infants who can’t move independently – and who are too small to use a wheelchair – the ability to participate in On Time Mobility, which is crucial in early childhood development.

“The goal of creating the BBLT was to investigate an infant’s ability to learn how to participate in self-initiated mobility, now commonly referred to as On Time Mobility,” Jerome said. “We have learned the importance of this as it corresponds to an infant’s overall development in many areas, including understanding the benefits of mobility as it relates to being an active participant in learning about their environment, socialization with others, speech and language development and becoming an autonomous person.” He also noted that the negative effects of immobility include “learned helplessness, decreased autonomy and slower development in many domains.”

Jerome called the BBLT’s design “simple yet incredibly functional.” Meant to be used under the direction of a licensed physical therapist or occupational therapist, the adapted baby seat on wheels features a joystick positioned midline on the body that allows the child 360 degrees of movement. The device itself is easily transported and, “most importantly,” Jerome said, was designed for the environments in which infants develop, close to the floor and in the home.