With Go Baby Go!, students use classroom knowledge to bring fun to families

Dominic Yenzi rides around Chatham University’s Eastside Campus.

On a rainy Saturday morning in May, half a dozen children were zipping around on toy cars through the second floor of Chatham University’s Eastside Campus. Watching and guiding them were physical and occupational therapy students wearing shirts that read, “Go Baby Go!”

The shirts bore the name of the program these students had spent weeks participating in, outfitting ride-on toy cars to be more accessible for young children with disabilities. Anna Harvey, OT ’24 and Alison Wyland, DPT ’23 were the students leading the project.

“Over the course of the past year, we recruited families and got cars to build and modify based off the child’s needs, so they can experience the independence that another kid would,” said Wyland.

“We rewire them so they’re operated by a switch,” explained Harvey. “It’s basically a big button that we put on the steering wheel that bypasses the pedal, so they don’t have to access it with their foot. They can just hit the button with their hand, and that makes the car go.” 

Additional modifications could include adding pool noodles and other cushioning for support and comfort, as well as a remote control that parents and caregivers can use to control the vehicle themselves. It all comes at no cost to the families involved.

As a physical therapy student, Wyland said she learned a lot about how to converse with the families over the several weeks leading up to the car giveaway, which happened May 20th.

“I was constantly communicating with the families about what they want on their car, we had meetings to see what we had to do to the car to modify them,” she said.

Harvey added: “We also did a video call with them to observe the children, so we can see if they need this type of support, or they’d be able to better access the button if it was on this side. We get to exercise a little bit of our evaluation skills and put them into a real-life situation.”

Modifications all depend on the needs of the individual child; one recipient who had a stroke needed more support on his left side. Others might need head supports or harnesses.

“We get to exercise a little bit of our evaluation skills and put them into a real-life situation.”

Harvey, who had participated in the program last year, said that one of the mothers was overwhelmed with emotion while talking about how much therapy had helped her family and how grateful they were for the program.

“It’s very rewarding to hear stuff like that,” she said.

Anne Romaniw, a professor in the occupational therapy program, said Go Baby Go! is run entirely by students, allowing them to take information from the classroom and textbook and adapt it to a real client.

“A lot of what we do as OTs includes adapting the environment and adapting everyday items, so people can function independently and do what they need to do, want to do, love to do,” she said.

“In this case, kids’ main occupation is play, and these kids want to play,” Romaniw continued. “Students take something that enables these children to play independently and with other friends, and they learn how to adapt something to meet their individual needs, whether it’s a visual or a physical impairment.”

Britney Yenzi, whose five-year-old son, Dominic, received a car from Chatham’s Go Baby Go! program, said she wanted to get involved because she thought it was a good cause. Dominic had MECP2 duplication syndrome, which Britney said leads to developmental delays.

“He still likes to do things kids his age do, like swing and bounce on our trampoline at home,” she said. “He loves to play with kids and his cousins, and they have power wheels. For him be included and driving around with them, now he has the opportunity to do that.”

You can support Go Baby Go! at Chatham University by making a donation here. Your gift will help Chatham's Doctor of Occupational Therapy and Doctor of Physical Therapy students purchase what they need to modify ride-on cars for kids.

Mick Stinelli is a Writer and Digital Content Specialist at Chatham University. His writing has previously appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and 90.5 WESA, and he has a B.A. in Broadcast Production and Media Management from Point Park University. Mick, a native of western Pennsylvania, spends his free time watching movies and playing music.