Children with cerebral palsy who play sports video games reap a marked improvement in self-esteem, U of T research suggests. Occupational therapy professor Denise Reid and graduate student Stacey Miller published their study in the December issue of Cyber Psychology and Behavior. In the study Reid and Miller report that when physically disabled kids played virtual reality sports, like soccer and snowboarding, “They thought they were cool.” Game players could also try their hands at volleyball or dancing. Participants played games using upper-body movements to interact with virtual environments, thus combining physical therapy with mental therapy.
In addition to providing muscular therapy it was concluded that perception of self-ability was also improved upon, given that the children (most of them using walkers or wheelchairs) did not previously see themselves as capable of such physically demanding sports.
After a detailed interviewing process Reid and Miller followed the progress of nineteen participants aged eight to thirteen as they used the adapted software. In their study, “Doing Play: Competency, Control, and Expression,” the authors describe how the children experienced “perceived physical changes and increased social acceptance from both peers and family.” Even through the vicarious medium of computer games it seems that positive experiences of ability and achievement can have a meaningful impact on children and the way they regard themselves.
This is not the first instance of virtual reality (VR) being used in therapeutic practice. VR has also been applied in the treatment of phobias such as acrophobia (fear of heights), arachnophobia (spiders), or claustrophobia (enclosed spaces).
Due to the expense and relative inflexibility of “purpose-built VR hardware and software,” off-the-shelf equipment is often used in its place. The term “therapeutic virtual environments derived from computer games,” or TVEDCG is used by cyberpsychologists to describe this alternative gear. Research into developing cheaper VR tools is important to the maturity of VR as expensive equipment can limit patients’ access to treatment..
Reid and Miller’s research was funded by Kids Action Research. Dr. Reid, who is with the Faculty of Medicine’s department of occupational therapy, is now studying VR’s therapeutic effect on elderly stroke patients.
