Dr. Rogers, her team, and the LIH SkyCity Team

The “assembly team” at Beijing LIH Olivia’s Place

The initial launch of GoBabyGo in China brought 10 modified ride-on cars in total to Chinese children. Special donation ceremonies were held at LIH SkyCity Rehabilitation Hospital and LIH Olivia’s Place Beijing. Dr. Sandra Rogers, Professor at Pacific University (Oregon, US), and Dr. Fengyi Kuo, LIH Healthcare Occupational Therapy Corporate Lead, presented 4 retro-fitted ride-on cars to 2 Kunming families and 2 Beijing families. In Beijing, therapists from Shunyi Women and Children’s Hospital of Beijing Children’s Hospital also participated in the program.

Dr. Kuo and Dr. Rogers being interviewed by local media in Kunming

GoBabyGo has been promoted in the US for 15 years and it is hoped that the modified ride-on cars can now be accessible to more Chinese children with disability, helping to improve their mobility. According to Dr. Sandra Rogers, GoBabyGo has been working in many nations and the reason for choosing Kunming and Beijing as the first cities in China to launch the program was that LIH Healthcare has international facilities with an advanced rehabilitation philosophy that matches well with the program’s philosophy and vision.According to Dr. Kuo, through the training conducted by Dr. Sandra Rogers and her team, physicans and therapists in Kunming and Beijing learned basic techinques to retrofit the motorized cars.

A child in Beijng, who has Type II Spinal Muscular Atrophy, sat in the car trying to make it move. When he was asked by a therapist which color car he liked best, he answered, “red,” without any hesitation, and gave a new name to the car- a little red bee! The child’s dad was asked to join the assembly team. He took out all the parts started work with the clinical team.

In Kunming, When Dr. Rogers and her team learned than an 8-year-old child would be presented with a car, they searched for a larger ride-on car to retrofit.  “We will tweak the car to fit each child’s condition, if the recipient is an older child, we will choose a proper sized car specific to the child’s situation, make the car more comfortable to maneuver for the child,” said Dr. Kuo.

Modifying the seat back panel to fit the child.

When the assembly was finished, the program team and therapists let kids sit in the cars, adjusting the manual brake to make it easy to manipulate. At the same time, they tweaked the seats to make the child felt cozy behind the wheel, and enjoy the freedom of a little mobility when driving.

Replacing the controller based on the child’s hand strength, from a selection of 3 controllers.

That’s it!

With the guidance of their therapy teams, the children learned to drive the modified cars, use the controller, and avoid the obstacles placed by therapists. They learned quickly while having fun.

In Beijing, a young driver can’t get enough of his ride-on car, especially when crashing into targets.

Modified on-ride cars can improve children’s cognitive ability and independence, at the same time bringing happiness through play. The kids in Beijing were given group pictures as the event came to a close, some children exclaimed, “we are a family”, yeah! We are families, caring about each other, and fighting for love!”  Here, we’d like to extend our appreciation to Dr. Sandra Rogers, and her team, for this great program they brought to Chinese families and their dedication and contribution to pediatric rehabilitation.Together with LIH Healthcare, GoBabyGo is sure to continue its journey in China, creating more opportunities for the children we serve and their families.

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Training content included babies’ development in utero, nursing models for newborns, stress signals, interpretation of APGAR, and positioning, evaluation and feeding of newborns.
In the class, learners were not only presented with theory but also video demonstration and manual manipulation for positioning and feeding babies, in order to smoothly transfer theoretical knowledge to clinical practice. Participants were required to pass an online test before finishing each day’s course content in order to reinforce theoretical foundations, fill in gaps, and foster discussion and exchange of ideas among peers.

Professor Roger’s passion for teaching was evident and many students commented that they learn a lot from the course, because the content was well structured and very practical.

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Lis Ringrose, Physiotherapist, Chief Therapy Officer, LIH Olivia’s Place

Xinhua staff practice new skills.

One of the longstanding mission areas of Olivia’s Place has been to impact therapy throughout China and it is an area that is close to my heart. Earlier in the summer I was privileged to be part of a team leading a professional development course at XinHua Hospital. The course was jointly led with Pacific University, Oregon, US and focused on care for babies born prematurely. We were able to provide the course for free through a grant secured by the university.

The course was divided into two parts. The first was online study with articles and teaching materials to be read and assignments to complete. This lasted for four weeks with an hour online discussion with the U.S.-based professors each week. The second part was a three day workshop. The university professors flew over for this. I helped with translation, cultural adaptation, and coaching during the practical elements of the workshop. It was so encouraging to watch the skills and confidence of the participating therapists grow as they first practiced on dolls and then older babies and finally the very small premature babies on the NICU. Having therapists work on NICUs in China is more or less unheard of and everyone had the sense that we were all part of something new and exciting for the therapy professions as well as for the children and parents. When we asked when they planned to use their newly learned skills, ‘tomorrow’ was the answer. As far as we know, they will be the first service of this kind in China.

The course was considered a success by those who both taught and learnt on it. A second is already planned for this fall focusing on another skill area. It can also be provided with no charge due to the grant. We already hope that these two courses may be the beginning of something bigger and even more therapists can continue developing their skills in the future.

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