JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The Blexer System has been developed to provide different types of video games for doing entertaining motor exercises. In this study, a fully configurable adventure game has been tested by a group of children with physical disabilities in a school environment.

Objective:

Analyse the motor benefit obtained with the use of a video game, as well as the importance and implications of a good adjustment of the game parameters

Methods:

Five children with cerebral palsy (8.4 2.7 yrs., Gross Motor Function Classification II (2), III (2) and IV (1)), and one child with obstetric brachial plexus palsy (8 years, Mallet Classification III), used a personalized Kinect exergame under research, during a six-week intervention, as part of their conventional physical therapy sessions at school. The game integrates four repeatedly appearing upper limb exercises with individually adjustable difficulties. Outcomes were three assessments of Box and Block Test and Jebsen Taylor Hand Function Test.

Results:

Significant relations between the adjustment of the game parameters and the motor benefits, as well as a correlation between the type of improvement and the grade of affection have been observed: with the game parameters “goal” and “time” adjusted in the range of 70% to 100%, only less affected children improved in BBT (11 blocks vs. -1 block, d = .87), while more affected children improved more in JTHFT (90 s vs. 27 s, d = .91).

Conclusions:

When adjusting difficulty in five ranges from ‘very easy’ to ‘very difficult’, playing in the range ‘easy’ to ‘medium’ led to the best results. Therefore, we propose using these ranges as a general guideline for training with configurable exergames.