Shine OnThe Upsee: Mom’s invention helps kids with disabilities walk
A desperate mom designed it to help her son walk. Now the Upsee is going to help a lot of children with disabilities experience that same freedom.
Next month, after successful trials in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., an Israeli mom's creative invention to help her son with cerebral palsy walk will be available for sale worldwide.
Music therapist Debby Elnatan designed the Firefly Upsee, a harness-like device with "specially-engineered sandals," to enhance her son Rotem's limited mobility.
"When my son was 2 years old, I was told by medical professionals that 'he didn't know what his legs are and has no consciousness of them,'" Elnatan says in a press release. "That was an incredibly difficult thing for a mother to hear. I started to walk him day after day, which was a very strenuous task for both of us. Out of my pain and desperation came the idea for the Upsee and I'm delighted to see it come to fruition."
The Upsee, which will sell for £299 (about $550 Cdn), enables small children to stand and walk by attaching their harness to the system's belt, which is attached to an adult. Not unlike when a child stands on his parent's feet to dance with them, the hands-free harness allows the parent and child to step simultaneously.
Stacy Warden and her five-year-old son Noah, who lives with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy (he cannot crawl, sit, stand or walk on his own) test-drove the harness. For the first time in his young life, Noah can now bear weight on both legs and has a whole new range of movements.
"He laughs and giggles, something he doesn't do with other walking devices, which he sees as work," Warden tells ABC News. "I am amazed at what this has done for both of us."
Warden hopes the Upsee will help teach Noah to one day walk on his own.
Watch other parents' encouraging stories here.
"Short-term, the Upsee improves special needs family participation and quality of life, while research suggests it has the potential to help them with physical and emotional development in the longer term," says Firefly's Clinical Research Manager and occupational therapist, Clare Canale.
"It has been humbling to see the progress and happiness the Upsee is creating; watching children to do simple things for the first time such as kicking a ball or playing with a sibling is wonderful for everyone involved, but especially the families," she adds.
The Upsee will be available at www.fireflyfriends.com on April 7.
