The ”Game” of Physical Therapy Solutions

A study by Marlene Sandlund etal published in Disability and Rehabilitation, April 2012 discusses parents’ perceptions of using low-cost motion interactive video games as a physical therapy solution in home training for their children who have cerebral palsy. The parents’ perception of the ”game” training was very positive. They expressed the view that motion interactive video games may promote positive experiences of physical training in rehabilitation, because the social aspects of gaming were valued. Further, the parents experienced less need to take on coaching while gaming stimulated independent training. However, they expressed a desire for more controlled and individualized games in order to better challenge the specific rehabilitative need of each child. The conclusions reached were that low-cost motion interactive games may provide increased motivation and social interaction over home training and also promote independent training with reduced coaching efforts for the parents. They felt that in future designs of interactive games for rehabilitation purposes, it is important to preserve the motivational and social features of games while optimizing the individualized physical exercise. Children with neurodevelopmental disorders like cerebral palsy (CP) are in need of fun and engaging rehabilitation methods to enhance motivation and increase compliance with motor training.There is a rising interest among clinical professionals and parents to use motion interactive games as a rehabilitation device for these children. In this qualitative study parents perceived that motion interactive games can enhance motivation for practice, stimulate the child and reduce the parental efforts related to home-based rehabilitation of children with CP. While all of the above statements are true it would be much more efficient and worthwhile if the interactive games were designed exclusively for CP patients and monitored by professional therapists who specialize in these specific physical therapy solutions. Such is the function of the TUTOR system. The HANDTUTOR, ARMTUTOR, LEGTUTOR and 3DTUTOR have been around now for several years assisting patents with CP as well as MS, stroke, spinal cord/brain injury and other upper and lower limb injuries/surgeries. The TUTORs are among the most cost efficient medical devices created for these types of rehabilitation. The methods incorporated in these physical therapy products is a series of challenging games that were specifically formulated to rehabilitate such patients. Games like ”snowball”, ”car race”, ”bubbles”, ”track a target”, ”asteroid attack”, ”sky defender” and more give the child patient (as well as the adult patient) a series of fun games to rehabilitate their affected limbs. Children as young as 4 or 5 years of age can avail themselves of these exercises. Through the use of telerehabilitation the patients can connect to professional therapists at the other end of the internet connection. See WWW.MEDITOUCH.CO.IL for more information.