- Title: UK: Nintendo Wii shown to benefit children with Dyspraxia
- Date: 30th April 2013
- Summary: CLOSE-UP OF WII SCREEN
- Embargoed: 15th May 2013 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: United Kingdom
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Education,Health,Technology
- Reuters ID: LVAEZF6IP190CQTQGNLUIQZJMEZW
- Story Text: Children with dyspraxia, a condition that causes co-ordination and balance problems, have been shown to benefit from therapy using the Nintendo Wii Fit video game. A group of British researchers have been studying the phenomenon and believe it could make a significant difference in the lives of afflicted children.
Use of the Nintendo Wii Fit video game could help improve the development of children with movement difficulties, according to British researchers.
The pilot study indicated that regular use of balance games using the Wii Fit remote and balance board had a positive impact on the motor skills, and related social and emotional behaviour, of children with Developmental Co-ordination Disorder (DCD), commonly known as dyspraxia.
The research team, led by Professor Elisabeth Hill from the Department of Psychology at Goldsmiths and Dr Dido Green from Oxford Brookes, studied two groups of children with DCD over a one month period. One group of children spent ten minutes, three times a week using the Wii Fit during their lunch break, while the other group took part in their regular Jump Ahead programme - a programme aimed at helping children develop motor skills.
The results demonstrated significant gains in motor proficiency, the child's perception of their motor ability and reported emotional well-being for more of the children in the group using the Wii Fit three times a week than those in the group not doing so.
Hill believes that, although the study was small, it provides preliminary evidence to support the use of the Wii Fit within therapeutic programmes for children with movement difficulties.
Eight-year-old Anna Greco has dyspraxia, a neurological disorder that can affect planning of movements and co-ordination as a result of brain messages not being accurately transmitted to the body. Around one in 20 children can be affected in varying degrees and there is no cure. Various coping strategies are developed, which can be enhanced through occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech therapy, or psychological training.
Anna's mother Monica says her dyspraxia is a constant problem for her daughter.
"It's a rare meal that we go through without something being spilt, sometimes a whole jug of water being spilled, with big wet consequences for everybody else. Also a major area where we see it a lot is her clothes and her getting dressed or undressed. She cannot really do or undo her buttons, so this affects my choice of clothes for her, if I know she's going to be on her own during a day, without any help," said Greco.
Hill says the study's results were impressive.
"The children when they were doing the Wii Fit intervention over that period of time their motor skills improved. So we got them to do a whole series of movement tests - running, balancing, putting pegs into a board, using scissors, those sorts of activities - before they started the intervention and then afterwards and we saw a significant, so a statistically significant improvement from pre-intervention to post-intervention when that intervention was the Wii Fit," she said.
Hill added that the improvement in the children's perception of their motor skill improvement was crucial.
"We also saw over that same period of time with the Wii Fit intervention a change, an improvement, in those children's perception of their motor skills and their sort of satisfaction with their motor skill, so there was an improvement in their actual skill, a measurable improvement, and the children felt that their motor skills were better and they were happier about that," Hill said.
Hill believes part of the explanation is that the children found playing a video game more enjoyable than conventional methods of testing, such as putting pegs into a board. She says that the interest in the project among other non-dyspraxic classmates was another motivating factor.
"Other children from the school were wanting to join in because it was cool and these children are not normally the cool kids. They're normally the children who are on the periphery in the playground, they're normally the children who in PE when the teacher says 'Child A, Child B, you're the team leaders, pick your team', these are the children who will always be picked at the end and no-one really wants them on the team, so for other children to be saying 'we want to take part in what you're doing', I think must be a big motivator," said Hill.
Anna Greco wasn't one of the children included in the original study, but is being monitored by Hill during the current batch of child participants. Her mother says she has noticed improvements in her daughter's movement since using the game at home and was pleased by what she saw during Anna's inaugural session at Goldsmiths.
"She assumes that she's going to be last at everything, whether that's because of the dyspraxia or not, I think there's a link there, there must be a link. So it's nice to see her interacting with the Wii and she's very proud of the fact that she can be good at it and she can be a champion and I saw a little bit of that today," said Greco.
The collaboration, which also included Sussex Community NHS Trust, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Trust and academics at Oxford Brookes University, are seeking funding to extend their study. They believe the implementation of virtual reality technologies in therapeutic services for children with movement difficulties has clear benefits and that the fact that the Wii Fit - or similar devices - could be used at home with no supervision, make them an ideal, low-cost therapy. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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