Special Needs DIY
Sept. 6, 2009
For many people, Labor day weekend, or any long weekend means around-the-house projects, at least one trip to Lowes or Home Depot, tool belts, a lot of testosterone and elbow grease. (For us, this Labor Day was mopping and cleaning up after a water hose broke, flooding the basement, but we still went to Home Depot.)
As special need families know the cost of therapy/medical equipment is very high. I spoke in an earlier posting about how we’ll be looking for a push chair just to transport our son from place to place, inside a mall or going into church. Unlike the fancy regular strollers you can get at Kids R Us for $175, the model we’re looking at (which is in the middle price range for medicinal strollers) retails for $1,775. When you add that with a bath chair, activity chair and basic therapy equipment, the need for a second mortgage isn’t really that unrealistic. Unless, that’s what you build over your long weekends.
The first thing we decided that we needed was a simple bench. First, a surface Nathan could rest his toys on while he sat on the ground. Now he can actually use it to sit on and work on other activities. 
The benches at Children’s Hospital (and most other facilities dealing with special needs) are simply a vinyl top over wooden legs with E notches cut out to adjust the height and knobs and bolts to lock it in place. When we went window shopping on the Internet, their bench goes for $188. After some sticker shock, we built our own for just over $25.
Next, we were fortunate enough to have insurance pay the bulk of a Rifton positioning chair for us. However, since Nathan was going to the babysitter five days a week at the time, he needed something to use both here and there. We had to call PMG Grandpa for help with this one, (and most of the other projects to follow. Grandpa’s great with power tools and building things.) Our solution still cost over $80 (a lot of which was in the tray which had to be slobber-proof), but this way we could leave a chair at the sitter’s and the other could stay at home.
As we would see things that Nathan would actually use and work well with at therapy, we’d start building our own versions at home. This ladder was one of the first tools we used in building leg strength and working on weight bearing. I have to give credit to my friend Ryan Tompkins for the use of his drill press, I wouldn’t have been able to drill that many holes perfectly straight to allow the rungs to align properly on both sides. (He also routed and rounded the base boards so there wouldn’t be hard corners for Nathan to fall or scrape himself.)
One of the projects Nathan was most excited about was when we converted a tricycle for him to ride last summer. We had to combine two Radio Flyer models, one with a push bar in back, the other with a traditional front wheel with the pedals (the other model allowed ‘coasting’ where the trike would move without forcing the legs to move.) We needed the wheels to move as this is what would teach him about reciprocal steps and learning to walk. Annette played a big role in this project as she had to make straps (most out of neoprene, which is tough to get your hands on) to hold his hips back and keep him sitting on the seat. We bought some special foot petals (for around $40) to strap his feet to the pedals allowing him the feeling of riding as well. This was still a lot cheaper than the $500-800 for true adaptive tricycles.
Other projects we’ve built (with Grandpa’s help) are the steps and wheelchair ramp which was critical when testing out the power chair, but now is a lot easier to get the regular push chair in and out of the house.
Being able to build things ourselves has easily saved us hundreds of dollars. For a long time it was the one way I felt like I was participating in Nathan’s success. I knew then and I still know now, if I build it, he’ll use it and it’s one more step toward maximizing his skills.
Not bad for a guy who only got a B+ in shop class.
Thanks again Grandpa!
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