Logan's proxy
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on March 2, 2015 1:46 PM
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Pam Thigpen, media assistant at Northwest Elementary School, selects books for student Logan Burch, a second-grader with a genetic disorder that keeps him homebound. Through a grant, the school district acquired a VGo telepresence robot, at right, that Logan can operate from home.
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Logan Burch, 7, a second-grader at Northwest Elementary School, and his dog, Paris, at his home. Born with a Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type I, likened to "ALS for children," he is unable to attend school but is able to be part of his class since the district acquired a grant for a VGo telepresence robot. Through use of a Tobi Eye Gaze system, Logan is able to operate the robot with his eyes.
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Northwest Elementary School principal Theresa Cox talks with Logan Burch, a second-grader at the school, represented through a VGo telepresence robot that operates like "FaceTime or Skype on wheels."
Logan Burch is a typical 7-year-old.
He likes Spider-Man, Sponge Bob and playing Disney Infinity 2.0.
Teachers says he is smart and witty and often engages in good-natured teasing.
His classmates in Sarah Dunn's second-grade class at Northwest Elementary School love him.
Except most of them have not even met him, since a medical condition keeps him homebound.
He is only able to be part of the class through technology that allows a robot to represent him at the school.
Logan was born with a diagnosis called Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type I, the No. 1 genetic killer of children.
"Most people understand it best as the children's form of ALS," said Jennifer McIver, occupational therapist with the school district, who has worked with Logan since he was 3 years old. "His spinal cord is not firing messages to his muscles. With lack of use, it degenerates so it's progressive.
"He's not mobile at all. He spends I would say all of his day on his back. He's got some movement but not controlled. He's very weak."
Despite that, he is a "smart little guy," she said. He was in Mindy Lane's kindergarten class last year and skipped first grade before entering Ms. Dunn's class this year.
Since he cannot be exposed to even a common cold without serious risk to his health, he has had little exposure to other children outside of his family, which includes parents Jeremy and Lisa Burch and two older siblings. He spent his last three birthdays hospitalized.
Schooling has been accomplished by some creative efforts.
"For his preschool years, he had home visits by a teacher," Ms. McIver said. "We did a combination of the teacher going to his home and kindergarten doing FaceTime."
The one thing that was lacking, though, was the social piece, being able to interact with his peers, she said.
Technology filled in some of the gaps. They learned about the VGo telepresence robot that operates "like FaceTime or Skype on wheels," Ms. McIver said.
"We thought, 'Wow! If he can do this, that will really increase his autonomy and place in the classroom," she said.
The district was able to secure a grant for one of the robot-like devices that includes a small screen that resembles a mini iPad, Ms. McIver said.
"(The robot) is the height of a second-grader so it can be eye-to-eye with his classmates," she said. "Logan can participate in class, hear everything that is said to him, and speak in class. Logan cannot use his hands to operate the system so we have integrated the use of a Tobi Eye Gaze system in which he is learning to drive the robot with his eyes."
Ms. McIver, who serves 11 schools, said she was told that Wayne County Public Schools was the first school district in North Carolina to have one.
"Durham has Duke Hospital and ordered three of them," she said. "Logan is the only one in the nation who has the integration of the Tobi Eye Gaze."
Before the robot arrived, students in the class had only heard about Logan.
All that changed when the pint-sized robot arrived.
"The first time Logan logged on, they could see his face and were talking to him," Ms. McIver said. "All of a sudden they were calling it 'Logan.' They wouldn't even call it a robot."
Logan quickly became part of the class. Even though his health and medical treatments prevent him from spending a full day engaged in classroom activities, the avid reader enjoys being able to check out books from the school library and even participating in physical education class, by navigating the robot around the gym.
"He's so funny, when we first talked about him getting a robot, the first thing he said he wanted to do was go to the bathroom at the school. Because so many times he'd be linked up with the class and students would line up to go and he'd be left out," Ms. McIver said with a laugh. "He just wants to feel like a normal kid."
His classmates demonstrated their mutual loyalty recently when it came time for a field trip to the circus. They wanted to make sure Logan also got to go, and Barnum and Bailey was more than accommodating, Ms. McIver said, setting up a way to stream the show for him.
Jeremy Burch, retired Air Force, said he was grateful for the teachers and the school system's efforts to acquire the technology that initially seemed "so far out of reach," he didn't think it would be possible.
"The hoops and hurdles they had to jump through to make it happen, it was amazing," he said. "I'm not a paid spokesperson or anything but these products, they could be so useful for schools to invest in this type of device. The whole telepresence, it's a wise investment."
Even more priceless, though, is the look on his son's face as he is included in class activities.
"Logan has always been an outgoing child. He's just never had the opportunity to participate at the level he's participating now. He's a little more excited just to have peers to interact with," he said. "The world's been opened up to him. It's amazing to see the difference, how open-minded and the open hearts of the children. They see him as Logan."
Once the weather warms up and flu season is over, Jeremy says he is looking forward to bringing his son out to meet his classmates.
Ms. McIver said it will not just be a gift for Logan.
"For this little guy to be in his house, I hate the world to miss out on him," she said.