Is It Feasible to Apply a Virtual Box and Block Test in Children with Unilateral Cerebral Palsy?: A Pilot Study

Background: With technological advancements, virtual versions of the Box and Block Test (BBT) employing the Leap Motion Controller have been developed for evaluating hand dexterity. Currently, there are no studies about the usefulness of this system in children with unilateral cerebral palsy (UCP). Thus, our main objective is to apply a virtual BBT based on the Leap Motion Controller in children with UCP compared with the real BTT for assessing upper limb function within a pilot study. Methods: Seven children between the ages of 4 and 8 years who were diagnosed with UCP were assessed three times using the real and virtual BBT. Results: For all the participants, performance was greater in the real BBT than in the virtual BBT. During the last assessment, the participants reached 28.17 (SD:6.31) blocks in the real test and 9.00 (SD:5.90) in the virtual test. The correlation index between the two modalities of the BBT was moderate (r = 0.708). Conclusions: The results obtained in this study suggest that the application of the virtual BBT in children with UCP is feasible. Future studies are needed to validate the application of the virtual BBT in children with UCP.