Hian Tat Ong, Liu Zhu Tong, Jia Xuan Tan, Jeremy Lin, Etienne Burdet, Chee Leong Teo, and Sam S Ge
rehabilitation, cerebral palsy, robotics, virtual reality game
Studies of robotic therapy for adults with physical disabilities due to stroke have been an active field of research for the last two decades and the results suggest that stroke patients can benefit from this kind of therapy. Due to the success of robot-assisted rehabilitation in adults, it is reasonable to believe that this approach may be well suited to the needs of children with physical disabilities. This paper presents the results of a preliminary study of three children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy, using the reachMAN2, a novel robotic device for the pediatric rehabilitation of upper limb function. The device has two degrees-of-freedom to train pinching, forearm supination/pronation and wrist flexion/extension movements. An interactive computer game was developed to increase subjects’ participation and engagement during the robotic rehabilitation. Pinching, with the index finger and thumb, forearm supination/pronation as well as wrist flexion/extension were trained two or three times a week for 15 minutes each. There was a total of 10 training sessions in four weeks. The results showed significant improvement in movement precision, range of motion as well as motor skill measurements using the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency, Second Edition (BOT-2)
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