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Effectiveness of the virtual reality on cognitive function of children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy: a single-blind
Orkun Tahir Aran1, Sedef Şahin1, Barkin Köse1
1Hacettepe University Faculty of Health Sciences, Occupational Therapy, Ankara.
Insights
Virtual reality rehabilitation significantly improved cognitive functions in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. This innovative approach, when combined with traditional therapy, offers enhanced benefits for spatial perception and thinking operations.
Area of Science:
- Neurology
- Pediatrics
- Rehabilitation Medicine
Background:
- Cerebral palsy (CP) encompasses non-progressive motor and cognitive impairments resulting from brain lesions.
- Hemiplegic cerebral palsy specifically affects one side of the body, impacting motor and cognitive development.
- Cognitive function deficits are a significant challenge for children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effectiveness of a virtual reality-based rehabilitation program on cognitive functions in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy.
- To compare the cognitive improvements between a virtual reality intervention group and a traditional occupational therapy group.
- To determine if virtual reality enhances specific cognitive domains in this pediatric population.
Main Methods:
- A randomized controlled trial involving 90 children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (age 11.18 ± 3.37 years).
- The study group received virtual reality intervention plus Traditional Occupational Therapy (TOT); the control group received only TOT for 20 sessions.
- Cognitive functioning was assessed using the Dynamic Occupational Therapy Cognitive Assessment for Children (DOTCA-Ch) by blinded assessors.
Main Results:
- Both groups showed improvements in cognitive functions after 10 weeks of intervention.
- The virtual reality group demonstrated significantly greater improvements across all cognitive function subtests compared to the TOT group (P < 0.001).
- Specific cognitive domains enhanced by VR included spatial perception, praxis, visuomotor construction, and thinking operations.
Conclusions:
- Ten weeks of virtual reality-based rehabilitation effectively enhanced cognitive functions in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy.
- Virtual reality applications are recommended as a valuable tool for cognitive rehabilitation in children with cerebral palsy.
- VR intervention offers superior benefits over traditional methods for improving key cognitive skills in this population.
Abstract:
Cerebral palsy is a term covering non-progressive motor and cognitive impairments caused by lesions of the brain. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of virtual reality-based rehabilitation program for children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy on cognitive functions. Ninety children (47 boys, 43 girls) with hemiplegic cerebral palsy were randomized to either study (n = 45; 11.18 ± 3.37 years) or control (n = 45; 11.06 ± 3.24 years) groups. The study group received virtual reality intervention in addition to Traditional Occupational Therapy intervention, and the control group received Traditional Occupational Therapy for 20 sessions. Both groups were evaluated by blinded assessors with Dynamic Occupational Therapy Cognitive Assessment for Children to collect information on cognitive functioning. Both groups' cognitive functions were improved after 10 weeks of interventions. The between-group comparison revealed significantly greater improvements in all subtest of cognitive functions in the virtual reality group than in the Traditional Occupational Therapy group (P < 0.001). Our results showed that 10 weeks of virtual reality-based rehabilitation enhanced cognitive functions in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. Using virtual reality applications in cognitive rehabilitation was recommended to improve spatial perception, praxis, visuomotor construction and thinking operations in children with cerebral palsy.
