Bella Shorr wasn't even a year old when her uncle, Marty Parzynski, came to her parents with an unusual request: He wanted to build a device that could help her play with her sister and brother.
Bella was born in 2015 with spina bifida, a birth defect in which the neural tube that becomes the spinal column fails to develop completely during pregnancy. Children with spina bifida often experience some level of paralysis in their feet and legs, and Bella was no different. She would sit and cry watching her two siblings run around and play. Parzynski decided to do something so Bella could join them.
His wife, Becky, found blueprints online for a do-it-yourself child-size wheelchair, consisting of a baby seat known as a Bumbo, a wooden baseboard, and two small treaded wheels. Parzynski made the chair in one afternoon and put it to use when Bella and her siblings spent a week at his house in Webster, NY. When the Shorrs arrived at the end of the week, they couldn't believe what they saw.
“We walked through the house into the backyard, and Bella's out there in her chair, giggling and playing and wheeling after her brother and sister,” her father, Jeffrey Shorr, recalls. “She was able to have fun and be a kid.”
Parzynski's experiment quickly turned into a device the Shorrs couldn't imagine their lives without. They were soon taking Bella and her new chair to places they couldn't have previously gone, like the local water park. What the family didn't anticipate was how much Bella's personality would change once she could move on her own.
She was more like a typical kid, smiling often and getting into trouble, says Jeffrey. Having a wheelchair also helped improve her speech, he says. By age 5, Bella no longer needed speech therapy. “We really attribute that to the freedom and self-reliance she found in her chair,” says Shorr.
Mobility-equipment companies generally don't manufacture wheelchairs for children under 3, says Cole Galloway, PT, PhD, professor of physical therapy and psychological and brain sciences at the University of Delaware. Even after that age, he says, children may have trouble using wheelchairs, and they also need ramps and modified vans to leave their homes. Access to such equipment, he says, can be difficult for families—and when kids can't move around, it sets them up for social and cognitive deficits that can last for years.
Lack of mobility makes it tough for young children to socialize with other kids. “If you're not mobile, you're not talked to,” says Dr. Galloway. “If you're not talked to, how do you get invited to birthday parties? Almost nothing can substitute for getting out in the world and having that kind of natural socialization.”
Like Bella's uncle, Dr. Galloway wanted to help kids with disabilities who are too young for conventional wheelchairs or whose families can't afford or find one. In 2012 he founded Go Baby Go, a program for children under the age of 10 with physical and developmental disabilities that provides them with personalized vehicles. Ride-on cars like those sold in toy departments are purchased or donated, and then each is modified by a team of volunteers to meet the needs of the child. Someone like Bella Shorr, whose legs are paralyzed, might get a car that can be propelled with the push of a button rather than a foot pedal. The results are often immediate—and astounding.
“When we give a car to a kid who's never been mobile and he or she hits the switch and starts rolling, we have to have chairs nearby because sometimes the parents faint,” Dr. Galloway says.
For the children, the cars offer advantages beyond mobility. “Kids need to fit in on the playground,” says Dr. Galloway, “and if you have a toy car with a cartoon character on it, you become the coolest kid there.”
Tori Harp, a mother of three in Wichita, KS, says her daughter Reese, a 2-year-old with Down syndrome, experienced a substantial developmental growth spurt after getting a car in June. Before, Reese hadn't been walking or talking much; now she's talking more and playing games like peekaboo with her sister. Best of all, the car, which has a button for propulsion and a bar affixed to the steering wheel for better control, allows her to join the other kids when they ride bikes around the neighborhood. “Reese jumps in her car and takes off with them,” Harp says. “She's definitely the life of the party.”
Mobility is important in enabling children like Reese and Bella to socialize, but it's also crucial for brain growth, particularly in early childhood, says Rebecca Garcia-Sosa, MD, FAAN, assistant professor of pediatric neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “The brain is making neural connections all the time when it is first developing, and the more neural connections children are able to make, the better their outcomes,” says Dr. Garcia-Sosa. Kids with mobility limitations are more likely to have developmental delays, she explains, because the brain is not being stimulated as a typical child's would be.
“When you're actively learning through movement, you use different skills—working memory, planning, and other executive functions,” Dr. Garcia-Sosa says. “Movement helps the neural connections form, and it's much harder to make those connections when you're in a passive environment.”
In early childhood, mobility also can boost skills like language, speech, and memory. “Developmental progress is a complex process,” Dr. Garcia-Sosa says. “The more we expose children to different environmental, physical, and social worlds, the better those neural connections develop, and they're all intertwined in complex brain networks in ways we don't really understand. Developing one skill really helps the brain develop other skills as well.”
That seemed to be the case with Bella, says Jeffrey Shorr. “She would not have had the same arm strength had she not used her Bumbo chair so early on,” he says. “That helped her with physical therapy when it came time for her to transition to a walker.”
After witnessing how Bella's DIY wheelchair improved her life, the Parzynski and Shorr families created Bella's Bumbas, a nonprofit venture that provides chairs to families of kids with mobility deficits. Meanwhile, Dr. Galloway has expanded Go Baby Go by sharing the blueprints and instructions with teams of volunteers at other colleges and universities. The program now has more than 150 chapters worldwide.
“Movement is everything,” Dr. Galloway says. “It's the core for thinking and language. It helps build your brain. If we can get kids mobile at young ages, their brains have no choice but to grow—and there's no limit to what they will be able to accomplish.”
Resources for Mobility Devices
- Bella's Bumbas
Chairs are available in three models, each with a different level of support. Recipients pay only for shipping. bellasbumbas.com - Go Baby Go
Ride-on play cars are modified for children with mobility problems. Reach out to a local Go Baby Go chapter for more information. sites.udel.edu - The Frog
This device helps babies and toddlers move around on their tummies. Priced at $250, it is available in two sizes and can be adjusted slightly for kids who have had tracheostomies or use gastrostomy tubes. frogmobilityllc.com - The GoBro
Designed by the same company that makes the Frog, the GoBro ($400) is for young children who can sit independently. frogmobilityllc.com - ZipZac
This lightweight, toddler-size wheelchair is low to the ground and costs $45 a month to rent or $900 to purchase. zipzac.com