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| The iCanCrawler |
The device, named the iCanCrawler, arrived in the mail Friday and we were so excited to be able to get Noah started over the weekend. It's a very small portable device, that folds very easy for storage. The crawler was very simple to understand, although it did come with a detailed instruction manual. However, once I seen the yellow harness that Noah would suit up in to attach to the crawler cage frame, I knew that he was going to be unable to fit into it. I was a little crushed, as I had such high hopes. Yet, I suited Noah up anyway just to confirm what I already knew. My mind wanted to find a way to make it fit. But sadly the crotch strap was a big confirmation that there was simply no way. Noah was too big and there was nothing at all I could do to make it work.
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| Noah in the iCanCrawler Harness |
I wondered how far off we were, so I got out Noah's Upsee Harness for a comparison. There was a huge gap in size, I estimated that Noah would have only fit in it until he was around the age of 2. The manual does suggest it will only fit a child that is 36 months or younger, and weighs no more than 45 lbs, and no less than 12 lbs. Ideally, I think the product would work well for much younger children. I think it also would greatly benefit children that may have a delay in meeting developmental milestones, but are expected to eventually meet those milestones and are in need of additional support and assistance.
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| The iCanCrawler Harness and the Upsee Harness (Size Medium) |
I like that it has a design that allows a child to move in all directions. I think that it would offer a young child a lot of movement encouragement. Without being able to really play with it and put Noah in it, I suspect that you'd need to support the child's belly to some degree, at least in the beginning since they are suspended from a single latch on the back of the harness. I also think that a child would also have to have some already strong head, neck control with at least some basic core strength to be successful in this device. I see children with limb weakness who need a physical assistance really being able to benefit from this crawler model.
The inventor of the device, Amir Burstein, is a really nice gentleman. I am so grateful to both him and the therapist who wanted to help Noah. Mr. Burstein did indicate through correspondence that he hopes to have a model that will accommodate larger children in the future. Which would be wonderful. There are so many children like Noah that are trying to reach these developmental milestones at much later ages. And I always applaud those brilliant minds that are doing their best to make the difference in the lives of children with special needs.
If you'd like to learn more about this product that is in development you can find more information about it here:
http://icancrawler.com
"Sometimes the little things in life mean the most." Ellen Hopkins
Love,
Noah's Miracle by Stacy Warden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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