Video game rehabilitation
[1] The design for video games in rehabilitation is focused on a number of fundamental principles, such as reward, goals, challenge, and meaningful play.
[2] Platforms that feature motion control, notably the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft's Xbox Kinect, Sony's Eye Toy, and virtual reality have all been effective in this field of research.
The use of these systems in positive motor skill development began somewhere in the late 1990s as more researchers realized the benefit of internal, corrective feedback in such environments.
[5] Additionally, at the same time, researchers across the world began experimenting with the effect of virtual reality in therapeutic measures for anxiety disorder and phobias.
[8] Throughout its development, gaming in rehabilitation has gained a large amount of support for its differences in comparison to regular therapeutic methods.
[9] Saving energy while still participating in therapy has proven effective for these groups of people, since they are still able to progress in their goals towards rehabilitation, but not over-work themselves in the process.
[18] Several games have been created to support stroke rehabilitation and to alleviate boredom and frustration patients can face with frequent visits to the therapeutic centers.
As an example, 'Circus Challenge', created by Newcastle University scientists, is a Wii based game developed specifically to support hands and arms' muscles recovery.
[19] Also,Wii Sports in Video Game Rehabilitation benefit the patient's recovery and provide motivation for alternative leisure actives.
Also to support the recovery of upper extremity muscles, ARMStrokes was recently introduced as a mobile app to help stroke survivors to complete their rehabilitation exercises.
Research has indicated that children with cerebral palsy can benefit from Wii games such as jogging, bicycling, snowboarding, and skiing to increase their physical activity levels.
This physical activity can be challenging and limited to these children due to accessibility problems that financial and societal barriers impose, such as a lack of equipment or availability of exercise instructors, and even transportation issues.
[22] While there is great interest in using video game rehabilitation with children with cerebral palsy, it is difficult to compare outcomes between studies, and therefore to reach evidence-based conclusions on its effectiveness.
[citation needed] There is moderate evidence for improvements with balance and motor skills in children and teens, but it is not recommended as an effective therapy.
Wrist rehabilitation through a droid-based game, for example, revealed that patients can have more flexibility in their therapy sessions by keeping track of their progress on their phone and taking exercises home with them.
Evidence in studies show that these types of game systems (apps and haptic devices are effective in the rehabilitation process.
Several studies have produced output that suggests that Wii games are able to effectively increase patients' scores after a certain period of rehabilitation through them.
In recent studies, professionals have proven that the therapist and patient create a positive relationship during physical rehabilitation with video games.
[34][35] Both, after a period of engaging in a variety of Wii-based games, have shown improvement comparable to, or better than, what they display during regular methodologies, gaining support for these systems.
Stroke patients with upper extremity motor difficulties have been the primary focus of this subject and, in this case, a variety of gaming environments have been experimented with.
A recent study proves that when incorporating video games into a patient's therapy routine can increase their chance of developing musculoskeletal.
[40] Although these injuries might be occasional or rare, a large scale study would be needed to investigate the occurrence of these damages facing the millions of users of games worldwide.
It's also possible in these scenarios that a lack of tracking also increases time spent on task, since the therapist does not properly see what level the patient is performing at.
[44] Additionally, common effects of virtual reality environments, such as dizziness, nausea, and disorientation, have also been found to result in the case of rehabilitation through these methodologies.
[45] Finally, gaming technology is believed to promote physical activity on clinical populations with multiple sclerosis, although there is no consensus about training duration, intensity or outcomes used to assess the clinical effectiveness, which suggests that randomized controlled trial should be carried out comparing gaming technology to traditional exercise for this population.
