Purpose: To assess the changes in balance function in children with cerebral palsy (CP) after two weeks of daily training with personalized balance games.
Methods: Twenty-five children with CP, aged 5 to 18 years were randomly selected for experimental or control groups. Over a period of two weeks, all participants received 8-9 game sessions for 15-20 minutes, totaling 150-160 minutes. The experimental group used personalized balance games available from the GAmification for Better LifE (GABLE) online serious gaming platform. Children from the control group played Nintendo Wii games using a handheld Wii Remote. Both groups received the same background treatment. Recorded outcome measures were from a Trunk Control Measurement Scale (TCMS), Timed Up & Go Test (TUG), Center of Pressure Path Length (COP-PL), and Dynamic Balance Test (DBT).
Results: After two weeks of training in the experimental group TCMS scores increased by 4.5 points (SD = 3.5, p< 0.05) and DBT results increased by 0.88 points (IQR = 1.03, p< 0.05) while these scores did not change significantly in the control group. Overall, TUG and COP-PL scores were not affected in either group.
Conclusion: This study demonstrates improvement of balancing function in children with CP after a two-week course of training with personalized rehabilitation computer games.
Keywords: Game therapy; neurological disorders; physical therapy; rehabilitation; serious games.