The Cerebral Palsy Foundation describes the so-called “Go Baby Go” program as one that “provides modified, ride-on cars to young children with disabilities so they can move around independently.” The initiative was developed at the University of Delaware by Professor Cole Galloway as part of a research project, with it now having expanded to encompass over 40 communities around the country as well as internationally. In developmental terms, there are myriad socio-emotional benefits to disabled children having access to their non-disabled peers; for the purpose of the scope of this column, the essential part of Go Baby Go lies in one thing: accessibility. These adaptive vehicles give children with mobility disabilities more agency and autonomy in their everyday lives.
I first connected with Denise Consoli in August the day after daughter Ellie turned 2 years old. Consoli lives with her family on California’s central coast, in Watsonville, with both she and her husband being well-known chefs on the Monterey peninsula. As to Ellie, she’s been connected to regional pediatric home health agency aptly named Coastal Kids Home Care since her mom brought her home from the NICU in September 2022. In February, doctors noticed signs of cerebral palsy and low muscle tone in her legs; she wasn’t talking either. These issues caused Consoli to spring into action, learning sign language via every book and YouTube video she could find. At the time of our interview, Consoli reported Ellie was up to 36 words in sign language. Consoli marveled at her child’s capacity and capability as the very young human she is.
“Ellie is one of the strongest humans I’ve ever met in my life,” Consoli said. “She surpasses anything that anybody has said that she couldn’t do. She tries to do it in her own way. I really feel sometimes in our society, people look at somebody and think, ‘What do you mean they’re disabled? They look normal.’ Nobody stops to think about what is it to be disabled and what that means. Just because we’re a little different, people look at her different simply because she’s trying to walk with braces on.”
Consoli can empathize with how Ellie navigates the world, as she stands only 4’8” and is legally characterized, in her words, as a “midget.” Like her daughter, Consoli must do things differently to navigate her life too.
Go Baby Go is a godsend, Consoli told me, because it enables Ellie to be like other kids—but do it on her own terms. There are other children in the neighborhood who drive their Power Wheels around for fun, and Ellie is right alongside them in traffic. To the aforementioned point about Go Baby Go facilitating greater autonomy, Consoli said she feels “really blessed” for her daughter’s opportunity to ride around in her own car. It’s freeing, she said, because Ellie is a speed demon and has “incredible” upper body strength. Moreover, Ellie is hellbent on keeping pace with her 5-year-old sister, whom Consoli called Ellie’s “motivator.”
The Go Baby Go cars are bog standard Power Wheels-type cars modified such that there’s no steering wheel and the gas pedal is removed. Instead, there’s a single button kids like Ellie push to go, with parents and/or guardians having fuller control of the car by way of a handheld remote control unit. Patricia Krall, a physical therapist at Coastal Kids, explained the cars have grander applicability besides the obvious mobility piece. Using the vehicles is a teaching tool for children, as it reinforces critical skills such as cause-and-effect and spatial awareness. Krall’s patients are enthralled when they discover, for instance, that pushing the button makes the car do something cool. These experiences are crucial for healthy brain development, particularly for kids who are developmentally delayed. The benefits of Go Baby Go, then, extend far beyond sheer mobility and independence. Children’s brains are highly malleable at Ellie’s age, and these experiences go a long way in building skills that will pay off in the long run as their bodies continue to grow.
As a logistical matter, Krall emphasized Go Baby Go benefits adults just as profoundly due how the cars are “a fraction” of the cost of traditional mobility devices. Krall said she and her colleagues have put 10 children in cars over the last 6 months, with each body and each experience being wildly different from one another. She added it’s been “really fun” to watch the different reactions, especially in moments when something goes haywire (quite literally) and the button doesn’t do what it should.
“I’m sure [Go Baby Go] will get kids moving better soon,” Krall said.
Consoli told me the possibilities of what Go Baby Go can enable are “eye-opening.” Ellie has been able to procure another piece of expensive tech in her very own iPad, on which she can spontaneously communicate with her family and others in her orbit. In the same way Go Baby Go enables mobility, the iPad, replete with the picture-based communication system built for Ellie, allows her to communicate with more confidence and competence. It’s “heartbreaking,” her mom told me, to see her frustrated and unable to express her emotions. The iPad makes it more accessible. “I would love to see how this iPad is going to benefit her [and] how it’s going to get her out of that frustration and more able to communicate better using this iPad,” Consoli said.
For Krall, she wants Go Baby Go to go and go… and go. Looking towards the future, she wants these cars to be made available to as many families as possible, telling me “the hope is to continue to share and reach out to our community and give these kids the opportunity to move.”
“We have an opportunity to reach a lot of people and provide support for families,” Krall said. “It’s [helping] families in our community and [helping] kids develop in a fun and age-appropriate way.”