Exploring The World Around Us: Insights from the Power Up! Study

If you spend time around children, I am sure you have been often asked “why?”.  As children get older their curiosity for understanding things, especially the world around them, increases as they interact with the environments in which they live, play, and learn in. However, for children with disabilities being able to independently explore their environment may be limited by their mobility. A power mobility device can increase a child’s independent mobility, and therefore their ability to interact with their environment (Livingstone & Field, 2014). The study “Power up! How becoming a new power mobility user contributes to children’s participation and well-being” began in the Summer of 2022. The goal was to understand the experiences of children who are new power mobility device users. The children, their families, and the child’s teacher and educational assistant were all interviewed. Although data collection via the interviews is still ongoing, the preliminary findings were recently presented at the 2024 Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists conference. I will also share some of the early insights from this work here.

While working as a research assistant for the Power Up! Study, I have interviewed children, family members, teachers, and educational assistants from a variety of cultural backgrounds on their perspectives about power mobility device use. After listening to many stories, one of my biggest takeaways has been the importance of children being able explore their environments and to explore it independently. During a school interview, an educational assistant explained that using a manual wheelchair means the student has to constantly ask staff to move them where they wanted to go. However, with a power wheelchair, the student was able to independently move themselves around the classroom. As a result, the student’s interactions with their peers increased because they could now approach other students without having to ask an adult for assistance. This demonstrates how valuable it is for children (especially older children) to be able to make choices and then act on those choices independently.

Creating accessible spaces is also important. Throughout the interviews, participants noted many ways that power mobility devices could be better used in their homes or schools; however, the lack of accessibility in these spaces made it difficult to use power mobility devices. Participants expressed how factors such as not having access to a ramp or having hallways that  were too narrow made it difficult to use a power mobility device (which are often large and heavy). While power mobility devices can increase a child’s independence, the accessibility of the spaces that they occupy also plays a large role in how they can interact with their environments.

As the study progresses, I look forward to continuing to hear the perspectives from the participants I interview and learn from! Next steps for the Power Up! study include finishing the interviews, analyzing our data, and submitting the study findings for academic publication. We hope that our Power Up! results will help service providers and organizations better understand the experiences of children who are new power mobility users and work toward allowing more children the opportunity for mobility independence to explore their environment.

            On behalf of the Power Up! research team I would also like to express my sincerest appreciation to ENRRICH for providing funding to our study!

References

Livingstone, R., & Field, D. (2014). Systematic review of power mobility outcomes for infants, children and adolescents with mobility limitations. Clinical rehabilitation, 28(10), 954-964. doi:10.1177/0269215514531262

About the Author

Natalie Friesen has been working as a research assistant for the Power Up! study under the supervision of Dr. Jacquie Ripat since the Spring of 2023. She recently completed her schooling and will be graduating with her occupational therapy master’s degree from the University of Manitoba in October 2024. She has always had an interest in pediatrics and power mobility devices and plans to continue pursuing these interests while working post grad.