Virtual reality in the assessment and treatment of children with motor impairment: a Systematic review
Laufer, Y. & Weiss, P.L. (2011) Journal of Physical Therapy Education, 25 (1), Winter 2011, 59-71.
The objective of this article is to present a systematic review of publications where virtual reality (VR) has been used to provide rehabilitation to children with sensorimotor deficits. Articles were chosen from research reported in English, peer-reviewed journals.
Process: 26 studies were first classified by study design to reveal strength of evidence. Of them, 20 had sufficient strength of evidence to be evaluated using the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine conduct questions. Based on positive responses to 10 study characteristics (such as adequate description of randomization, exclusion criteria and power calculations); the studies ranged from 3-10 positive responses with an average score of 5.25.
Results: Most studies reported positive outcomes with fair to poor evidence quality. Research of a higher quality is necessary for stronger assessment of the claims of VR. As noted, evaluation is limited by poor research design and methodology, but also by the “diversity of research objectives, outcome measures and treatment intensity presented in the different studies.”
Link to abstract: www.library.nhs.uk/booksandjournals/details.aspx?t=*systematic+review&stfo=True&sc=bnj.ovi.amed,bnj.ovi.bnia,bnj.ebs.cinahl,bnj.ovi.emez,bnj.ebs.heh,bnj.ovi.hmic,bnj.pub.MED,bnj.ovi.psyh&p=1&sf=srt.publicationdate&sfld=fld.title&sr=bnj.ebs&did=2010897080&pc=2295&id=6
Therapist's research digest: Active video games, robots and virtual reality for children's rehabilitation.