Effect of feedback from a socially interactive humanoid robot on reaching kinematics in children with and without cerebral palsy: A pilot study.

PURPOSE: To examine whether children with or without cerebral palsy (CP) would follow a humanoid robot's (i.e., Darwin) feedback to move their arm faster when playing virtual reality (VR) games.

METHODS: Seven children with mild CP and 10 able-bodied children participated. Real-time reaching was evaluated by playing the Super Pop VRTM system, including 2-game baseline, 3-game acquisition, and another 2-game extinction. During acquisition, Darwin provided verbal feedback to direct the child to reach a kinematically defined target goal (i.e., 80% of average movement time in baseline). Outcome variables included the percentage of successful reaches ("% successful reaches"), movement time (MT), average speed, path, and number of movement units.

RESULTS: All games during acquisition and extinction had larger "%successful reaches," faster speeds, and faster MTs than the 2 games during baseline (p < .05).

CONCLUSION: Children with and without CP could follow the robot's feedback for changing their reaching kinematics when playing VR games.