Go Baby Go, A Retrofitted Toy Race Car That Could Help Thousands of Physically Impaired Kids Be Mobile

According to the charity group NationSwell, University of Delaware physical therapy professor and infant behavior expert Dr. Cole Galloway figured out a way to “provide mobility to children with cognitive or physical disabilities” after visiting a local Toys “R” Us. It all started in 2007 when mechanical engineering professor Sunil Agrawal approached Dr. Cole about combining his robotic studies with helping the children. After Galloway’s Toys “R” Us visit, the use of expensive and heavy robotic parts turned their idea into the Go Baby Go, an inexpensive retrofitted toy race car “that could help thousands of physically impaired kids be mobile.”

Unlike electric wheelchairs, which are usually reserved by kids above age three, Galloway’s cars can be used in the critical early years of development. He estimates that so far Go Baby Go has retrofitted an estimated 100 toy cars, a small dent for the more than half a million American children under the age of five who have mobility problems. To spread his mission, Galloway has traveled across the country, posted YouTube videos and spoken with dozens of parents. He hopes that others can learn from his work and build cars of their own: “If you’re not going to drop what you’re doing and come work for us, at least contact us — we’ll send you everything we have.”