VIRTUAL REALITY TECHNOLOGY FOR CEREBRAL PALSY

VIRTUAL REALITY TECHNOLOGY FOR UPPER EXTREMITY REHABILITATION OF CHILDREN WITH UNILATERAL CEREBRAL PALSY

The VRapeutic (Full-immersive game-based therapy) is new therapeutic Egyptian software. It has the potential to provide intensive, repetitive, and task-oriented training. It may increase children's motivation, enjoyment, active social participation. Children with UCP may experience varieties of associated health conditions as difficulty of movement, instability of postural balance, difficulty of motor planning and control which impact on UE function.

Ethical statement this study was approved by institutional Review Board of the faculty of physical therapy ,cairo university .Egypt (no.P.T.REC/012/004237) .

Study Design A prospective randomized controlled trial of pre-post study design with two months follow-up evaluation will be used.

Sample size estimation

will be conducted to determine the number of recruited children. G*POWER statistical software (version 3.1.9.2) will be used using α=0.05, power 80% allocation ratio N2/N1 =1.

Randomization The selected children will be assigned by simple randomization via closed envelopes into two equal groups (control and study); the envelope will be contained a letter indicating whether the child will be assigned to the control or to the study group.

Inclusion Criteria:

• • Their ages will range from of 6 to 10 years.

  • Both genders will be included.
  • Their degree of spasticity will range from 1 to 1+ according to the Modified Ashworth Scale (Meseguer et al., 2018).
  • Their motor function will be at level I according to Gross Motor Function Classification System (Palisano et al., 2008).
  • They will be able to understand and follow the instructions.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Exclusion Criteria:

Children will be excluded from the study if they have any of the following criteria:

• Epilepsy.
• Visual or hearing problems.
• Musculoskeletal fixed deformity in upper limbs, lower limbs or spine.
• Orthopedic surgery on the involved UE.
• Botulinum toxin therapy for the affected UE within the past 6 months or within the study period.