Virtual reality as adjunctive therapy for upper limb rehabilitation in cerebral palsy

As part of a larger study evaluating the effects of trunk restraint on the kinematics of arm movements in children with cerebral palsy (CP), we evaluated the level of cooperation and satisfaction of the children when practicing arm and hand movements during play-like activities in a physical environment (PE) compared to a video-capture based (IREX, GestureTek) virtual environment (VE) using 5-point Likert scales. While cooperation was similar in both environments, children expressed greater satisfaction with the PE compared to the VE (p ≪ 0.04). Reasons for this may include difficulty or frustration with the VE activities and/or appropriateness of the computer games.