Personalized rehabilitation for children with cerebral palsy

Over the years, there has been an ongoing increase in the use of virtual gaming (VG) implemented via a range of technologies for the rehabilitation of children with disabilities including cerebral palsy (CP). While many VG-based devices have been developed over the past decade, many have been tested primarily for post-stroke therapy and included limited adaptation capabilities, not to mention personalization. When adaptation was included, it was not implemented dynamically in real-time but rather used to adjust the game parameters before a session. The goal and novel contribution of this study was to examine the potential of dynamic, within-session adaptation of virtual game parameters to support the rehabilitation of children with CP. The iVG4Rehab (Intelligent therapeutic Virtual Gaming System for Rehabilitation) system was designed and developed in collaboration with a team of clinicians. We aimed to demonstrate and evaluate the potential of a personalized virtual gaming system to support and enhance treatment of children with CP by real-time adaptations of game parameters to the children’s abilities and therapeutic needs. Our results validated the hypothesis that personalized system as a tool that has great potential for upper extremity (UE) therapy for children with CP and contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of their underlying performance, usability and kinematics in this unique context.