Realidade virtual para aprendizagem motora de crianças com paralisia cerebral

Abstract

Cerebral Palsy (CP) is characterized by a group of disorders of motor development and posture that are attributed to a non-progressive injury that occurs in the fetal brain or childhood. The Virtual Reality (VR) environment can be a conducive environment for motor practice, as children may be able to perform movements and perform activities that they would not be able to do in the real world. The objective of this research was to analyze the application of VR for motor learning in children and adolescents with CP. This research generated two studies: the first of them aimed to describe and summarize the practice in VR for motor learning of children with CP. An integrative literature review was carried out that searched the PubMed, Embase, Scielo, and Lilacs databases for studies available through the PICOT strategy and published between 2000 and 2023. The results indicated that the intervention time varied from thirty to sixty minutes of practice, with a duration of two to twelve weeks of intervention, with immersive and non-immersive interfaces being used for practice and the most used device was the Nintendo Wii. It was possible to verify that the practice in VR had a possible positive effect on motor learning and may be a possibility of intervention for individuals with CP. The second product was a longitudinal experimental research, which aimed to analyze whether the motor performance of children and adolescents with CP can be equivalent to that of children with typical development (TD) during the VR practice sessions. Children and adolescents aged 6 to 14 years, of both sexes, participated in the study, divided into two experimental groups: PC Group, composed of 9 participants with CP, and DT Group, composed of 8 participants with typical development (TD). Participants in both groups participated in 10 practice sessions for the Nintendo Wii archery and tennis games, lasting 30 minutes. The performance of the participants in the two games was recorded throughout the sessions and used for comparison between the groups and between the days of practice through analysis of variance (ANOVA). The performance of the PC group was lower than that of the DT group in the score and number of errors of the game and in the number of correct answers of game 2. In game 1 and game 2, the PC group had a significant improvement in their performance from day 5 to day 6, and also when compared to day 1, while the DT group remained with its performance similar during all days, and even so, superior to the PC group. Thus, it was possible to conclude that, despite the motor limitation, individuals with CP can improve their performance as a function of practice, and that the effect of practice can be beneficial for motor performance. Finally, VR can have positive effects on the motor performance of children with and without CP, and the Nintendo Wii is a viable tool for this type of intervention.