The impact of exergames on the functional balance of a teenager with cerebral palsy – a case report

Abstract

Purpose

To understand the impact of an intensive rehabilitation program based on exergames in balance and lower limb function in a teenager with cerebral palsy.

Methods

The rehabilitation program comprised different customised exergames and was delivered in 5 weekly sessions of 30 min for 4 weeks. Pre-, post-, and 1-month Follow-up assessments included the following metrics: Berg Balance Scale (BBS), Dynamic Gait Index (DGI), Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM), Posturography, and Gait analysis.

Results

We observed increased scores after the intervention of 9/72 points in GMF – Module E (Walk, Run and Jump) and of 9/56 points in BBS, sustained at Follow-up. Changes in function, specifically in the quality and independence of the performance of specific movements such as turning 360°, increased distance reaching forward, walk behind, step over obstacles, and step stairs up and down were also observed. Gait kinematics and Spatio-temporal parameters tended to get closer to the 50^th percentile.

Conclusions

We observed positive changes in motor function of a teenager with cerebral palsy, with sustained increased scores at a 1-month Follow-up. Findings are suggestive that intensive rehabilitation programs using exergames with high customisation features are a potentially valuable rehabilitation tool for training balance in teenagers with Cerebral Palsy.

Implications for rehabilitation

• Exergames may be a useful for providing balance training for teenagers who have a mixed form of cerebral palsy.

• Exergames that require body displacement may be suitable for modulating gait kinematics and spatio-temporal parameters.

• The customisation of virtual rehabilitation tools seems to impact the motivation and effort of the user positively.

Keywords:

• Exergames
• cerebral palsy
• virtual reality
• balance
• rehabilitation

Acknowledgement

The authors thank John Muñoz and Rodrigo Lima for their technical support in data collection and data processing, and Teresa Paulino for her support in software development.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by FCT- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia through the Augmented Human Assistance project [CMUPERI/HCI/0046/2013], LARSyS [UID/EEA/50009/2019], and NOVA-LINCS [UIDB/04516/2020].