MAKING THERAPY FUN

The Gamification of Rehabilitation

Our Story

I lost the use of both of my hands, due to an unfortunate accident. I became a toddler again.  I couldn’t dress myself, feed myself, bathe myself.  And although my injuries were limited and I eventually was able to use my hand again, in the same year my childhood friend suffered a traumatic brain injury with complete loss of his dominant hand. We take for granted how many things in a day we need full control of both gross and fine motor muscles. Video games helped me regain use of my thumb after my injury.

The fine motor muscles for my friend Zach have been the hardest to recover.  The National Institute of Health published a study in 2013 that showed computer games have “a positive influence on psychomotor function”.   Video games are now being used for rehabilitation.  I would like to use my experience to develop video games specifically to help the coordination of small muscle movements in children with traumatic brain injuries and enhance motivation for children to use these muscles and improve function in their daily lives. 

The video game will have different difficulty levels and after interviewing neurologists and other hand specialists I will design the functions based on the muscles that need rehabilitation, functional goals, and safety considerations.  Eventually I hope to use the games to give real-time feedback to the medical teams on motor function. 

Video games are a great resource for kids to rehabilitate.  It not only is fun for the child and can help quality of life, but it also teaches problem-solving skills while the muscles slowly regain function.  

OUR GAMES →

What is Fine Motor Disability

  • Fine motor disability is an individuals inability to or impairment in making precise voluntary movements with the fingers and hands. This manual dexterity begins in childhood as children start learning to hold a rattle at age 1 and pincer grip at age 2 and gradually develop skills for writing, holding an object, typing, driving and all the activities of daily living.

    Complex interactions between the brain, nervous system and musculoskeletal system occur to control the coordination of the complex movements of the hand.

    Causes of lesions or damage to any neuroanatomical area can alter fine motor control. These include infection, stroke, toxin, trauma, autoimmune inflammation, metabolic and congenital abnormalities. Susceptible areas include pre-motor and motor cortex, cerebellum, basal ganglia, descending corticospinal tracts, brain stem, peripheral nerves, sensory system (direct sensory feedback for proprioception, tactile sensation, vibration), musculoskeletal (muscles, joints, ligaments) etc.

    The estimated number of children in the US with a developmental disability is 17percent , of those with traumatic brain injury, 43 percent have a lifelong disability.

  • Fine motor disability has considerable consequences on the quality of life in children and their ability to perform the activities of daily living in through adulthood.

    Treatments for fine motor disability depends on the underlying etiology. However for all types, extensive inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation, physiotherapy, occupational therapy is the mainstay of treatment.

  • There is computer technology to help rehab adults but there is very little technology to help rehab pediatric patients. There are also no custom controllers for kids so they are able to play these video games for fine motor problems. Kids have to go to the hospital for rehab and the solutions available to them are not engaging. 

    By creating engaging, developmentally specific video games with tailored track pads and controllers, kids can have rehabilitation in their home in a fun, exciting manner.  Further research is being done to develop feedback mechanisms for the rehabilitation team and doctors to help customize games as a child progresses through therapy. 

  • Our clinical team will be partnering with pediatric rehab hospitals and outpatient occupational and physical therapy centers to give children the ability to use these games for their rehabilitative process and doctors the ability to monitor their progress.  Our bidirectional functionality with real time movement and hand motion feedback is still in development however if you or someone you know would like to use our games, please contact us for more information.

Rehabilitative Equipment 

Multiple ready-to-use controllers can be applied to our games, some of the recommended controllers include the following listed ones below.   Custom controllers can also be designed to accommodate fine motor disabilities including finger sensors and virtual reality screens.