New Virtual Technology Helps CP Kids
Simulations Allow Disabled Children To Improve Balance,
NEW YORK Morgan Chisolm, a 6-year-old cerebral palsy patient, is getting a big boost in her physical therapy, with a new system that makes her sessions fun and productive.
Chisolm, born three months premature, suffered a broken blood vessel in infancy, which left her with cerebral palsy. The illness, Morgan noticed, has made her different from others around her.
"The way God made me -- there's a problem, she said. "With my legs, they don't work like other people."
"She's not able to balance like you and I," said Jennifer Chisolm, Morgan's mother. "Her feet do move, not perfectly, but you know those muscles in her abdomen are just not coming in, so she just can't balance."
Thanks to some technological advancements, Morgan is participating in a unique form of physical therapy that has improved her balancing skills without her even noticing.
A new form of chroma-key technology uses a green screen (similar to TV weather forecasts) to place children inside their video games, allowing them to downhill ski, kick a soccer ball and score a touchdown from their own living rooms.
In Morgan's case, a small camera filmed her in front of the green screen while a computer simultaneously replaced everything green with a virtual game so that Morgan could see herself playing in the virtual environment.
Karen Christopher of the Atlantic Rehabilitation Institute says the new technology has boosted children's confidence.
"They get a sense of feeling they can do things that they never thought they could before," she said.
Christopher said that the children work as hard and gain as much as they would in an occupational therapy session.
"The children don't realize how hard they are working because they're just having fun," she said.
The system that once cost hundreds of thousands of dollars is now much less expensive. The cost for a virtual therapy session is now about equal to a regular therapy session.
There are dozens of games available on the Irex system for both kids and adults. It's all about making the hard work of therapy fun -- and a little bit easier.
As Morgan has continued to play soccer and other virtual reality games, she has relied less on her walker.
She is confident that her hard work and play would allow her one day to live unhindered by her disability.
"I'd like to walk like other people," Morgan said.
source: http://cbs4denver.com/health/health_story_197155159.html
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