EFFECT OF VIRTUAL REALITY IN SPIDER CAGE ON GROSS MOTOR PERFORMANCE AND BALANCE IN CHILDREN WITH SPASTIC DIPLEGIA

Abstract

Engi E. Sarhan, Amr Mohsen Abo Khatwa*, Mohamed Bedair Ibrahim, Abeer M. Salamah, Hajer M. Abdullatif, Sherif Moustafa Mahmoud Ramadan and Nesma EM. Barakat

Background: Cerebral palsy (CP) is a motor impairment syndrome that affects movement and posture. This study applied on children with spastic diaplegia to examine the effect of virtual reality in spider cage on gross motor performance and balance.

Purpose: This study aimed to detect the effect of virtual reality in spider cage on gross motor performance and balance in children with spastic diplegia.

Materials and methods: The study randomly assigned children with spastic diplegia to either the virtual reality training group (16 children, average age: 8.4 years) or the control group (16 children, average age: 8.47 years). The virtual reality training group used the virtual reality glasses system for virtual reality training in spider cage in addition of traditional physiotherapy exercises for three months and the control group did traditional physical therapy exercises included spider cage exercises for three months. The researchers measured the Pediatric Balance Scale, The Gross Motor Function Measurement-88 before and after the training sessions.

Results: there was a significant difference in Gross motor performance and balance posttreatment as compared with pretreatment in both groups (P < 0.001), there was a significant effect on Gross motor performance and balance in the virtual reality group in comparison with control group with P. value 0.02 and < 0.001.

Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that virtual reality training improves balance and gross motor skills in children with spastic diplegia.