DOES VIRTUAL REALITY EFFECT MOTOR PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN WITH CEREBRAL PALSY?

Objective: The study was aimed to analyze effect of virtual reality on motor performance with Cerebral Palsy (CP). Methods: Ten children with CP with mean age of 11.40 ± 3.56 (6 male, 4 female) years were included. The... [ view full abstract ]

Objective: The study was aimed to analyze effect of virtual reality on motor performance with Cerebral Palsy (CP).
Methods: Ten children with CP with mean age of 11.40 ± 3.56 (6 male, 4 female) years were included. The inclusion criteria were to be classified in levels I-III of the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS). Parents of all children were informed of the study protocol and signed informed consent statements. Virtual reality games were programmed by Star3dme company which named as games for windows PC SDK software. They were applied to the children twice a week for 30 minutes for 6 weeks. Motor performance were evaluated gross and fine motor performance subtests of the Bruininks - Oseretsky Motor Proficiency Test (BOMPT).The effects of virtual reality were analyzed with Wilcoxon signed-rank test for statistical analysis.

Results: Six of the children were right hemiparetic CP, whereas four of the children were left hemiparetic CP. The first assessment of gross motor performance was 17.40± 10.69, fine motor performance was 16.60 ± 11.16. After 6 weeks, there was a significant increase in both gross and fine motor performance (p<0.05).

Conclusion: There had been a significant improvement in children's gross and fine motor performance as a result of the virtual reality practice. It is thought that virtual reality program is the good and effective way for increasing motor performance of children with CP.