to do. To harness their movement efforts and allow the infants to get to where they want to go,’” Kolobe says. “Mobility in infants is a gateway to learning.”
department’s Harry G. Knecht Movement Science Laboratory. Pidcoe’s engineering background was a good fit for faculty members who needed assistance building equipment for their research in muscle physiology, motor control and nerve regeneration.
How it teaches This gateway to learning comes via reinforcement. The SIPPC harnesses, in various ways, a child’s movements that couldn’t normally propel them due to lack of coordination or strength. It then reinforces those movements by offering a reward in the form of advancing arbitrarily or toward a goal and eventual completion of that goal at some desired destination.
Researchers use a neural feedback net to investigate the real-time activity in babies’ brains as they navigate with the SIPPC. (Photo: University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center)
that she can use the SIPPC to attain her goals, she has successfully developed a cognitive skill.
Photo: University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
“When babies are first introduced to the SIPPC, they don’t do a whole lot—they can be surprised and even disturbed by the action,” Pidcoe says. “They have to practice, but once they do, their exploration areas get larger and the amount of time they spend moving also increases.”
Creative exploration at UIC The motorized device has sensors that respond to a baby’s kicks and weight shifts. The device rewards the baby with an extra boost.
Learning to move the SIPPC happens slowly and by accident at first, but the babies do eventually repeat, “and if they repeat their arm and leg movements they don’t lose them,” Kolobe says. “That repetition builds the repertoire of movements needed for skills such as crawling, and they get better at it.” The process is tied to cognition, motor learning and neuroplasticity. The babies must move intentionally in order to drive the SIPPC. Kolobe calls it a means to an end; if a baby can understand
In a certain sense, the roots of Pidcoe’s success with the SIPPC can be traced back to his rural childhood outside Philadelphia. He was a child who loved to take things apart and put them back together. “The activities I did as a kid would probably get me on a list somewhere today,” he laughs. “Making fireworks, building rocket launchers—that kind of thing.” Pidcoe’s natural curiosity carried through to adulthood, including during the final years of his bioengineering doctorate at UIC, when he started working with the Department of Physical Therapy. After graduation, he was brought on staff to launch the
“People used to joke about us being able to build something from nothing because we were on a shoestring budget,” Pidcoe notes. “When we couldn’t go out and buy the $20,000 device, we’d build our own for $3,000.” While Pidcoe enjoyed the work, he tended to get antsy when he stayed in any job for too long. He started making plans to apply to medical school, thinking it would be helpful to diversify his bioengineering training with clinical studies. But fate intervened in the form of Jules Rothstein, then-chair of the Department of Physical Therapy, who convinced Pidcoe that he could pursue all the clinical courses he needed right there at UIC. Pidcoe’s days soon centered on collaborative research in the Knecht lab, classes in the PT program and hands-on clinical work. Most students did three rotations of clinical work, but Pidcoe managed to do six. “The PT staff was really great at accommodating my requests,” Pidcoe recalls. “I know it wasn’t easy to find all these different clinics to place me in.” Pidcoe had taken many courses in anatomy, biology and kinesiology by that point, but the clinical rotations brought the textbook diagrams and classroom lectures to life. His stint at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago WINTER 2017
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