Game technology to increase range of motion for adolescents with cerebral palsy: a feasibility study

Abstract

Abstract Background: People with cerebral palsy (CP) experience limitations in motor control, strength, and range of motion (ROM). Abnormal movements caused by motor impairments commonly occur in people with CP. Activities of daily living (ADLs) can be seriously affected by insufficient ROM among others. To increase ROM, this study assessed the possibility of training three adolescents with CP using a Kinect-based system in a public school setting. Methods: We gamified the movement training by leveraging the Scratch language and the Kinect2Scratch tool that allowed the therapists to perform individual customization with less technical support. This experiment was carried out according to an ABAB reversal replication design in which A represented the baseline and B represented the intervention phases. Three adolescents in a public special-education school participated in the experiment. Results: Data showed that the three participants significantly increased their shoulder ROM and motivation of engaging in rehabilitation as well, thus improving exercise performance during the intervention phases. Conclusion: Despite that, the game is a promising and highly accepted training tool for school use, currently, it is still error-prone, and the requested support exceeds the support that can be provided by clinical therapists. A technically more robust system, combined with additional attractive games, likely results in higher patient motivation and better compliance. This would reduce the need for parents to motivate their children extrinsically and allow for clinical trials to investigate the effectiveness of the system.