A Game-Based Rehabilitation System for Upper-Limb Cerebral Palsy: A Feasibility Study.

Mohammad I Daoud,Mostafa Z Ali,Abdullah Alhusseini,Rami Alazrai

doi:10.3390/s20082416

Abstract

Game-based rehabilitation systems provide an effective tool to engage cerebral palsy patients in physical exercises within an exciting and entertaining environment. A crucial factor to ensure the effectiveness of game-based rehabilitation systems is to assess the correctness of the movements performed by the patient during the game-playing sessions. In this study, we propose a game-based rehabilitation system for upper-limb cerebral palsy that includes three game-based exercises and a computerized assessment method. The game-based exercises aim to engage the participant in shoulder flexion, shoulder horizontal abduction/adduction, and shoulder adduction physical exercises that target the right arm. Human interaction with the game-based rehabilitation system is achieved using a Kinect sensor that tracks the skeleton joints of the participant. The computerized assessment method aims to assess the correctness of the right arm movements during each game-playing session by analyzing the tracking data acquired by the Kinect sensor. To evaluate the performance of the computerized assessment method, two groups of participants volunteered to participate in the game-based exercises. The first group included six cerebral palsy children and the second group included twenty typically developing subjects. For every participant, the computerized assessment method was employed to assess the correctness of the right arm movements in each game-playing session and these computer-based assessments were compared with matching gold standard evaluations provided by an experienced physiotherapist. The results reported in this study suggest the feasibility of employing the computerized assessment method to evaluate the correctness of the right arm movements during the game-playing sessions.

Highlights

Cerebral palsy refers to a group of non-progressive neurological disorders that begin at early childhood and can lead, among other limitations, to various degrees of motor impairments, physical disability, postural control, and coordination deficits [1,2]
These results indicate that the classification performance obtained by the computerized assessment method for the typically developing subjects is higher than the classification performance reported for the cerebral palsy children
This can be attributed to the fact that the typically developing subjects have high control of their right arm movements compared with the cerebral palsy children

Summary

Introduction

Cerebral palsy refers to a group of non-progressive neurological disorders that begin at early childhood and can lead, among other limitations, to various degrees of motor impairments, physical disability, postural control, and coordination deficits [1,2]. The worldwide rate of cerebral palsy is around 1 per 500 live births, which makes cerebral palsy the most frequent cause of motor disability in childhood [3]. Many children with cerebral palsy suffer from motor impairments in their upper limbs, which lead to significant impact on their independence in activities of daily living, quality of life, social interaction, and functional abilities [4]. The treatment of cerebral palsy is often focused on avoiding complications, enhancing functional independence, managing symptoms, improving motor capabilities, and strengthening weak muscles [6].

Methods

Results

Conclusion