Children help develop 'fun' new physio aid

An award-winning Loughborough designer has created a potentially life-changing physiotherapy aid to help children with learning and movement disabilities.

Katie Michaels was inspired to create Moti Me - which uses animal characters, colourful lights and dozens of mini games to develop movement - when a family member was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.

She was named a Women in Innovation Winner 2025 for her work on the product.

The 27-year-old has been testing her prototypes with children and staff at a special education school in Loughborough before she takes her product to market later this year.

Ms Michaels is originally from London but is based at Loughborough University, where she graduated from the Industrial Design and Technology degree course in 2020.

It was a family member's cerebral palsy diagnosis that inspired her to create the aid.

"I very quickly came to realise how much physiotherapy he had to do every single day to achieve his developmental milestones," she said.

"There wasn't really much out there to help him with that and we really struggled finding products for him, so that's what inspired me to build Moti Me."

The product uses flashing coloured lights and is linked to an app, where children can choose from a range of more than 60 games to play to help with sitting, standing, walking and crawling.

"The whole point is to encourage children to practice their movement, their physiotherapy and their stretches." Ms Michaels said.

"It engages with them, it makes it really fun. They don't realise they're practising their exercises and it helps them to achieve their developmental milestones."

The designer is working with Ashmount School in Loughborough to help develop her product by inviting children with developmental delay disabilities to test and give feedback on the aid.

Chloe, who has cerebral palsy, said: "Playing games using Moti Me with my younger friends has been great fun."

Billy, who also has the condition, added: "It's so much fun - my favourite animal is the giraffe."

School head teacher Abi Steady said: "Devices like this can make a real difference, because our young people have to practice the same physio exercises over and over again."

"It can be really dull and actually quite uncomfortable at times, so making it a bit more fun is really great. "

Ms Michaels hopes to launch Moti Me later in 2025 for children to use in schools, hospitals and at home.

Follow BBC Leicester on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected] or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210.