ABSTRACT
Adaptive ride-on toy programs have increased in popularity in recent years and provide novel rehabilitation tools as developmental aids for children with disabilities. While the adaptations made to these toys are intended to provide a safer experience for children with disabilities, safety concerns still exist. Within this context, the purpose of this study was to use a model with varying joint stiffness as a first-order approximation of a child with disabilities and to investigate whether modifications to ride-on toys are sufficient to prevent common injuries. Because the population of children with disabilities who are receiving adaptive ride-on toys have a wide range of musculoskeletal disorders, those with both decreased and increased muscle stiffness were considered in this safety study. A 5-point harness reduced movement regardless of change in joint stiffness and therefore, results from this study indicate that the use of these harnesses is effective regardless of joint stiffness. Furthermore, as excursion-related injuries are considered more critical to the user than injuries relating to kinetic variables and no known injury thresholds were exceeded, the addition of a belt is considered a necessary trade-off with little-to-no added risk.
ABSTRACT
Modified battery-powered ride-on toy cars represent novel rehabilitation tools for children with disabilities. However, safety concerns exist with the use of these battery-power toys and pose a barrier for the growth of adaptive ride-on toy programs due to the lack of evidence demonstrating that modifications made to these cars are safe. Within this context, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether modifications to ride-on toys are sufficient to prevent common injuries and determine how these modifications influence injury metrics. Specifically, we evaluated the effects of common modifications such as various seatbelt configurations and determined how increased seat back height effects neck forces. Results indicated that occupant displacement can be reduced using a lap belt, and further reductions in displacement are achieved with a 5-point harness. Although some injury metrics increased with restraints, none of the collected injury metrics even came close to approaching known tolerance thresholds, and most were well within the range that is experienced by a child in daily life. As the greatest concerns for these ride-on toys are related to displacement, findings from this study support the use of a 5-point harness system to minimize displacement-related injuries with little-to-no added risk.
