Wii vs.Standard Occupational Therapy for Children with Down Syndrome

Effectiveness of virtual reality using Wii gaming technology in children with Down syndrome

Article published in Research in Developmental Disabilities, No.32 (2011) pages 312-321, by Yee-Pay Wuang, Ching-Sui Chiang, Chwen-Yng Su and Chih-Chung Wang in 2011.

This well written paper asks the question: do children with Down syndrome using Nintendo Wii compared with standard sensory-motor training by occupational therapists show differences in sensorimotor functions?

Three groups were created of children with Down syndrome and without comorbidities to populate two treatment conditions and a control. Fifty of the160 children who agreed to participate but were subsequently unable to attend the treatment sessions were assigned to the control group. The interventions were randomly assigned to children who received either Wii or SOT for one-hour sessions twice weekly for 24 weeks. Wii gameplay was compared with standard occupational therapy (SOT) treatments utilizing sensory integrative therapy, neurodevelopment treatment and perceptual-motor approach. The three groups’ outcomes were measured using the Bruininks-Oseretsky test of motor proficiency-second edition (BOT-2), the test of sensory integration function (TSIF) and the developmental test of visual motor integration (VMI).

Video games played with Wii showed significantly improved sensorimotor functions; both intervention conditions showed significant improvement over the control group.The Wii group outperformed SOT on three of eight BOT-2 subtests, six of seven TSIF subtests and both the VMI subtest measures. Statistically significant differences showed between both intervention groups and the control group. A moderate to large effect size was seen across all measures (Wii group vs. control) and across all measures except the BOT-2 strength subtest (SOT group vs. control group). Pre- and post-intervention analysis within groups showed the largest effect size for the Wii group, (14 of 17 pooled subtests).

Link to the article abstract: linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0891422210002404