Turtle

Turtle
Infant Crawling Aid

The Turtle
Welcome to the temporary home for our Turtle Infant Crawling Aid.  I developed the Turtle with my father as a means to motivate my son Bryce to move forward after he learned to roll.  The Turtle is currently patent pending and in prototype testing.

Our Story
Bryce was a micro-preemie born 4 months prematurely at 1.5 pounds and 12" long.  He had severe brain bleeds at birth that resulted in hydrocephalus and eventually a VP shunt to manage the extra fluid on his brain.  He spent the first 5 months of his life in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Dell Children's Hospital in Austin, TX.  Afterward we brought him home on nasal cannula oxygen with a nasogastric feeding tube, lots of medication and many, many doctors and therapists to visit.  In the almost 2 years since he has been home he has slowly learned to breathe completely on his own, drink from a bottle, eat all different types of foods, sit idenpendently, army crawl, pull to stand and sign some simple signs.  Bryce has mild Cerebral Palsy but his biggest hurdle will be overcoming his significant developmental delays.

With the use of our prototype Turtle we were able to stop Bryce from simply rolling to everything he wanted to get to and instead use his arms and legs to pull himself forward to objects.  We're still working on an official hands and knees crawl but he gets stronger and more coordinated everyday.  Despite not actually crawling in the traditional manner Bryce long ago gave up on rolling as a means of getting places.  But he can still roll over when necessary or useful.  Here is a short video showing one of our early attempts with the Turtle prototype:

Just One Good Push


Progress


Scientific & Anecdotal Information
Of course, not all babies arrive early to the party of life, have special needs or developmental delays.  And plenty of "normal" babies begin to roll and forget to move on to crawling.  Here is a link to a Parents magazine article on the benefits of crawling and here's a research article regarding the correlation between reading difficulties and movement difficulties in young children.

It is widely believed that crawling fosters a kind of body/brain coordination that is very important because of the gross muscle groups used in crawling as well as the oppositional arm and leg movements.  Walking doesn't foster this kind of development and so it can be quite beneficial for a child to spend some time crawling to fully experience this development.

Our Mission
We are first and foremost Bryce's advocates.  We seek to find and employ all means possible to help him develop to his fullest potential in life.  That is why we developed the Turtle and it's why it's so important to us that other families have access to it as well.  A fund is currently being set up to accept payments for purchases, rentals and donations of Turtle Infant Crawling Aids.  All funds will be used first to pay expenses then secondly and finally to finance Bryce's many medical needs.  Your support of our product, as well as our mission, is greatly appreciated. 

Availability
The Turtle is currently available in prototype form, free of charge, to families in need.  There are a limited number of prototypes currently available which will be distributed on an as need, first come basis.  We will be sure to keep you all posted as well when the final product is available for purchase.  Thank you for your interest.

Feeback
Your feedback is vitally important to us and we hope you will email brycemoline@gmail.com with your requests for purchase or rental, questions, concerns and feedback.


Please check back as we continue to develop and distribute the Turtle Infant Crawling Aid.

Best,


Katrina Moline
Bryce's Mom, Turtle Developer, Baby Advocate