title: Balance improvement after physical therapy training using specially developed serious games for cerebral palsy children: preliminary results.
abstract: Cerebral palsy (CP) leads to various clinical signs mainly induced by muscle spasticity and muscle weakness. Among these ones impaired balance and posture are very common. Traditional physical therapy exercise programs are focusing on this aspect, but it is difficult to motivate patients to regularly perform these exercises, especially at home without therapist supervision. Specially developed serious games (SG) could therefore be an interesting option to motivate children to perform specific exercise for balance improvement.
  
  
  
  Ten CP children participated in this study. Patients received four sessions of SG included into conventional therapy (1 session of 30 min a week during 4 weeks). Trunk control and balance were assessed using Trunk Control Motor Scale (TCMS) before and after interventions.
  
  
  
  Children presented a significant improvement in TCMS global score after interventions [37.6 (8.7) and 39.6 (9.5) before and after interventions, respectively, p = 0.04].
  
  
  
  SG could therefore be an interesting option to integrate in the conventional treatment of CP children. Implication for Rehabilitation Cerebral palsy (CP) leads to balance issues. Rehabilitation exercises are not performed (enough) at home. Serious games (SG) could increase patients' motivation. SG increase balance control of CP children.
authors.affiliation: a Laboratory of Anatomy, Biomechanics and Organogenesis , Université Libre de Bruxelles , Brussels , Belgium.
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bonnechère
authors.affiliation: b Department of Electronics and Informatics , Vrije Universiteit Brussel , Brussels , Belgium.|c Institute of Computer Science and Mathematics, Slovak University of Technology , Bratislava , Slovakia , and.
authors.forename: Lubos
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Omelina
authors.affiliation: b Department of Electronics and Informatics , Vrije Universiteit Brussel , Brussels , Belgium.|d iMinds, Department of Medical IT , Ghent , Belgium.
authors.forename: Bart
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jansen
authors.affiliation: a Laboratory of Anatomy, Biomechanics and Organogenesis , Université Libre de Bruxelles , Brussels , Belgium.
authors.forename: Serge
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Van Sint Jan
mesh_terms: D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D002648:Child; D005081:Exercise Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009128:Muscle Spasticity / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D018908:Muscle Weakness / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D026741:Physical Therapy Modalities; D004856:Postural Balance; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D018910:Video Games
keywords: Cerebral palsy; exercise; motor control; new technology; posture; rehabilitation