Psychouli, Pavlina

Purpose: This study was designed to investigate the benefit to upper limb function of a home-based version of pediatric constraint-induced movement therapy, which was delivered across 2 months. Methods: Nine children (mean age: 6 years, 9 months) with hemiplegic cerebral palsy participated in this A1-B-C-A2 design, where A1 and A2 were nonintervention phases. In phases B and C, participants wore a splint on the unaffected hand. In phase C, motivating feedback through a computer game was added. Results: The Melbourne Assessment of Unilateral Upper Limb Function and the Quality of Upper Extremity Skills Test scores were significantly higher at the end of phases B (P =.037 and P =.006, respectively) and C (P =.001 and P =.001, respectively). Melbourne scores remained higher at the end of phase A2 (P =.001). Conclusions: A nonintensive form of home-based constraint-induced movement therapy was found to be effective. Improvements were larger after the second month of intervention.

Rehabilitation aims at brain rewiring through intensive practice following brain injury. This paper presents a new supportive mechanism that will be used to isolate wrist movement and in combination to the use of serious games, to act as a motivational tool to improve adherence during home-based practice. The paper describes the proposed methodology employed to carry out the home-based programme while leap motion is used to monitor and evaluate these exercises.

This paper presents a novel robotic system, which aims to enhance children's motivation through the gamification of the CIMT process. The system offers adjustability of the required movement skills, ensuring children will put increasingly more effort to achieve the rehabilitation goal, while keeping the task fun and engaging.

This paper presents a novel robotic system, which aims to enhance children's motivation through the gamification of the CIMT process. The system offers adjustability of the required movement skills, ensuring children will put increasingly more effort to achieve the rehabilitation goal, while keeping the task fun and engaging.