Let’s Play! — How video games can improve physical assessments in children with disabilities
Imagine you have a 6-year-old child, and you have to get them to complete an exercise routine. Let’s say you need them to sit still and perform a list of repetitive, somewhat boring, daily-life activities. Not too difficult? What if there was a time limit, maybe 30 minutes, to go through ten different tasks such as buttering a toast, tidying up scattered playing cards or organizing tiny game pieces?
Some of you won’t have to imagine it; you might have children or have worked with them. This is not an easy task. Children might comply with the first couple of tasks but will quickly become disinterested and abandon them.
Healthcare providers around the world face this frustration every day when attempting physical assessments on young children. An example of these assessments is the evaluation of motor skills in children with cerebral palsy.
Why is children's engagement so important?
In the UK, 1 in every 400 babies is estimated to be born with cerebral palsy, a lifelong condition affecting their motor skills and coordination.
While there is no cure for this condition, early exposure to the correct treatment plan can significantly improve the quality of life of the patients. However, finding the correct treatment is no simple task; it involves a lot of trial and error, as well as a mountain of appointments to assess the effectiveness of treatment plans on each patient. The problem here lies in children's participation in clinical assessments. Performing any kind of evaluation in children can be laborious due to several psychological challenges, ranging from the children’s inability to follow instructions and short attention spans, to distress in unfamiliar environments. Not only can these assessments be daunting to clinicians, but they usually lead to difficult or even negative experiences for parents and young patients.
Moreover, if the child doesn’t cooperate with the clinician during the appointment, it’s very likely for the assessment to be cancelled or postponed, as healthcare providers like the NHS (UK’s National Health Service) possess limited time slots and clinicians. Cancelled or postponed appointments represent a heavy burden on health providers, with losses reaching £216 million in the UK and up to $150 billion in the United States per annum.
Throughout history, clinicians have identified the challenges of working with young children and have found ways to better engage with them through the so-called Play Assessments.
A tour around the history of play assessments
The history of pediatrics is no stranger to the use of play. In one way or another, clinicians throughout history had to find creative ways to keep the child’s attention during clinical evaluations. Yet, it wasn’t until the late-90s that the formal term “Play Assessments” was gathered. Prior to this, the methodology was labelled as ‘unscientific’, and being called a ‘play lady’ embarrassed many occupational therapists. Fast-forward to the present, Play Assessments is a seminal part of pediatrics research, thanks to the leadership of inspirational women such as Mary Reilly (1974).
Now, the term Play Assessments comprises a variety of clinical evaluations where play is used as a medium to overcome difficulties arising from assessing a child’s cognitive, communication, emotional or motor development. For instance, role-playing is commonly used by psychotherapists when interviewing children in a non-intrusive manner.
Regarding currently available solutions, most play assessments focus on psychometric data, while only a few examine functional motor skills such as exploration, object manipulation and other motor functions. This may be due to the inherent difficulty of accurately assessing neuromotor skills by mere observation.
But as digital technology becomes more accessible, the road to better physical skill evaluations in children opens up to show a full sky of possibilities.
Videogames have already proven to be an amazing tool to engage children with their rehabilitation routines, as well as a form of escapism or social connection for many children like Ceyda. So the question is: could we also make use of the power of play and video games during clinical appointments?
I believe the answer is yes, which is why I stand here, full of motivation and ready to start my PhD journey in understanding how games can create more user-friendly and less scary clinical experiences, as well as promote more effective medical evaluations to help children like Ceyda.
So, what’s the plan for my PhD?
My PhD project will focus on creating interactive motor assessments through mixed reality solutions, bridging the digital and physical world. This will include exploration of different mediums, from Hololens headsets to sensorised toys and wearables.
I hope this blog post showcased ways in which games can be used in fields other than entertainment. Who knows, you might even find a great application for games in your industry or field. The possibilities are endless, and one might even be closer than you think!
About the author:
My name is Pilar and I’m a PhD student at the Centre for Doctoral Training in Intelligent Games and Game Intelligence (IGGI) in Queen Mary University of London. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog post. If you work in a similar field, do not to hesitate to reach out or explore more of the amazing games research happening at IGGI.
E-mail: p.zhangqiu@gmail.com
See you at the next blog post!
