Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy, President

April 18, 2018

Whitehall, Pennsylvania

During the 2016 SOPAC Conference, we caught up with the organization’s president, Cindy Miles. She teaches several courses on torticollis and plagiocephaly around the country, where she introduces various techniques of working with children.

Cindy told us, “One of the fun things I have them do is use the [Pumper Car device]. I think it’s a great tool. I’ve used the [Pumper Car device] for about 15 years. It’s been a great adjunct at our practice. It’s been a fun thing for the kids to do. What I like about it is it incorporates upper and lower extremities. I also like that the children have to work to keep their feet on it. It’s a great activity for bi-lateral coordination, also reciprocation as well.”

Founder of Abundant Life Equipment Lending Library

Columbia, South Carolina

April 18, 2018

“I’m so excited, I just purchased a [Pumper Car vehicle] for our library so that children can have choices of not just riding an adaptive bike, but they can be in a [Pumper Car vehicle]. A [Pumper Car device] is so great because it really builds up the core. You can ride it to the playground and it will be the coolest thing—and everybody wants to be the cool kid on the block. So then all the other children will be like, ‘Can I be on it?’ And all of a sudden, you have a star. Our job is to make all of our kids feel included, to make them feel like stars. Even a child who is paralyzed can still be in this because it’s hand driven or if they have spina bifida. The [Pumper Car vehicle] levels the playground. Maybe you can’t run fast, but in a [Pumper Car ride-on vehicle] you can still be in a race so that will be really cool. We’re really looking forward to lending this piece of equipment out to families.”

Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center

Portland, Oregon

November 18, 2008

“First and foremost, it [the Pumper Car vehicle] has become a source of confidence for Owen. When he first came in to see me, he was not willing to attempt anything novel basically. I’d ask him to try something [and he’d say,] ‘No I can’t do it.’

“We found that he had about a 20-minute window right after [using the Pumper Car vehicle] where he was just incredibly regulated, incredibly focused, ready to just sit down and work with me. He stutters and he has problems with fluency. So, we found that when doing this kind of rhythmic gross motor activity, it increased his fluency, decreased his stuttering, and he was able to kind of work on some of the language issues that he’s been working on with more ease.”

“He needs that physical outlet to be able to complete his therapy. He is much more excited to come to therapy because he knows he can use the [Pumper Car vehicle] right at the beginning.”

“I use it [the Pumper Car vehicle] predominantly as a warm-up activity for the kids, to get their bodies going, to give them heavy work proprioceptive input. Get them to use their whole body into a rhythmic pattern. Sometimes incorporating speech into it. For some kids it’s used as a whole session because they really need to work on gross motor skill coordination. It takes them a good half an hour to even get that rhythm down. Start with it, with them on my lap and move to where they’re doing it independently.

Nov. 19, 2008

“They don’t know they’re getting a workout. The beauty of [Pumper Car ride-on vehicles] is that there are not that many opportunities for most of these [special needs] kids to have a ride-on toy that they can use in the community or at school. We have kids at every level learning to use these. We have some who get on and they know. They’ve never been on a riding toy before, but they get on the [Pumper Car vehicle] and they know how to go. It’s amazing to watch that.

When you look at a [Pumper Car device], it’s not just getting on it riding. It’s having something that you can do as a peer. That’s one of the beauties of being able to take the [Pumper Car units] out to recess, because they’re immediately cool with everybody. So peers that wouldn’t ordinarily approach a child with special needs might come over and say, “Wow, that’s really great. Can I have a turn?”

Oregon

Oct. 30, 2008

 “It’s getting a lot of energy into the hands and a lot of information into the hands. So you’re having to pull back which is increasing your arm strength. We develop centrally to distally, so we get strong in the middle of our body before we ever get strong in our hands. A lot of children, especially children with disabilities, don’t really get much hand strength out here because they have little muscle tone to begin with. So, anything that you can do that forces some energy into the hands or some use of it is really good. The [Pumper Car vehicle] does that for them. Also, with their feet they’re having to push forward and back so it’s a coordination thing as well.”