Real World Tracking of Modified Ride-On Car Usage in Young Children With Disabilities

Abstract

Background: Go Baby Go is a community program that provides modified ride-on cars to young children with disabilities. Aims: (1) To describe the real world modified ride-on car usage of young children with disabilities; (2) To compare subjectively reported modified ride-on car usage recorded by parents with objectively reported usage based on electronic tracking data. Methods: 14 young children (1–3 years old) with disabilities used a modified ride-on car for three months. Results: On average, parent-reported activity log data indicated that children used the modified ride-on car for 17.8 minutes per session (SD = 9.9) and 195.1 total minutes (SD = 234.8) over three months. Objective tracking data indicated 16.5 minutes per session (SD = 8.6) and 171.4 total minutes (SD = 206.1) over three months. No significant difference of modified ride-on car usage was found between parent-reported activity log data and objective tracking; yet, the mean absolute difference between tracking methods was 96 minutes (SD = 8.6) and suggests over- or under-reporting of families. Children used the modified ride-on car more in the first half compared to the second half of the three-month period (p < .05). Conclusions: This study may inform future research studies and local chapters of the Go Baby Go community program.

Ready, Set, Move! Tracking Children's Modified Ride-On Car Use With a Custom Data Logger

“…This suggests that cars are primarily used for short-term play with breaks. Previous research indicated that MROCs were used once per day for 17.8 (SD = 9.9) minutes per session on average, 24 which is similar to our results. Despite this similarity, there remained widely variable MROC use among participants in this study.…”

“…Furthermore, initial car use trends appear consistent with caregiver-reported use, suggesting acceptable accuracy of remote tracking as well as revealing relatively infrequent use of MROCs on average in both instances. This is also in agreement with previous research, which found that although families may have under- or overreported MROC use, on average, there was no significant difference between reported and recorded use 24. Additionally, although bout duration and play session length varied widely between participants, the majority of bouts lasted for 1- to 10-minute increments.…”

“…This is also in agreement with previous research, which found that although families may have under-or overreported MROC use, on average, there was no significant difference between reported and recorded use. 24 Additionally, although bout duration and play session length varied widely between participants, the majority of bouts lasted for 1-to 10-minute increments. This suggests that cars are primarily used for short-term play with breaks.…”

“…The data regarding MROC use at home and in the community rely on caregiver reports. A recent study by Logan et al24 used a custom data logger in each MROC to compare parent reports with objective tracking for 3 months and found that there was no significant difference between parent-reported activity and objective tracking, although families often under- or overreported. This study established the feasibility of remote data tracking of switch activation, but left future areas of study open, such as a longer period of data collection and other objective measures such as GPS, accelerometry, and distance traveled.…”

Go Zika Go: A Feasibility Protocol of a Modified Ride-on Car Intervention for Children with Congenital Zika Syndrome in Brazil

“…The 30-minute driving session will involve the participants learning cause-effect concepts by driving the modified ride-on car (i.e., pressing the switch for moving and releasing it for stopping). The dose of the intervention will be adjusted considering the opinion of the parents who participated in a previous interview and the results of a recent study, where the average time of interventions was 24 to 30 min [37]. The therapist and caregivers then will use verbal and physical cueing to encourage children to drive and explore the surrounding environment [17,38].…”