Use of serious games for motivational balance rehabilitation of cerebral palsy patients

Abstract

Research studies show that serious games help to motivate users in rehabilitation and therapy is better when users are motivated. In this work we experiment with serious games for cerebral palsy patients, who rarely show capacity increases with therapy which causes them demotivation. For this reason, we have implemented balance rehabilitation video games for this group of patients. The video games were developed using the prototype development paradigm, respecting the requirements indicated by physiotherapists and including desirable features for rehabilitation serious games presented in the literature. A set of patients who abandoned therapy last year due to loss of motivation, has tested the video game for a period of 6 months. Whilst using the video game no patients have abandoned therapy, showing the appropriateness of games for this kind of patients.