WiiTM-habilitation of Upper Extremity Function

The Wii project by the Roessingh Rehabilitation Centre (RDD) is focused on children who suffer from Cerebral Palsy (CP).

Cerebral Palsy is the general name for the group of movement disorders that can cause physical disability, mainly affecting the areas associated with body movement. Half of the children diagnosed with CP have an impaired upper extremity function which hinders arm movement.

Arm movement is vital for a child’s daily life activities, and therefore this severely impairs children with CP to live a normal childhood. This is why the rehabilitation of children with CP should be focused on regaining motor function. For this rehabilitation to work properly, the training that is advised has a high intensity of repetitions.

This means that especially in the case of children, this work should not and cannot be seen as boring and repetitive. Games that involve some kind of virtual reality (VR) might be a good way to keep them interested, therefore boosting their effort and their rehabilitation.

Project Wii wants to evaluate the training effect that using the Wii game computer has on child rehabilitation from Cerebral Palsy. Calculating the effect the Wii has in this process might be valuable information, and could also be used for the rehabilitation of other diseases that include reduced motor function in children.