Virtual Reality Technology to Enhance Conventional Rehabilitation Program: Results of a Single-Blind, Randomized, Controlled Pilot Study in Patients with Global Developmental Delay

Global developmental delay (GDD) is a complex disorder that requires multimodal treatment involving different developmental skills. The objective of this single-blind, randomized, controlled pilot study is to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of conventional rehabilitation programs integrat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of clinical medicine 2023-07, Vol.12 (15), p.4962
Main Authors: Settimo, Carmela, De Cola, Maria Cristina, Pironti, Erica, Muratore, Rosalia, Giambò, Fabio Mauro, Alito, Angelo, Tresoldi, Maria, La Fauci, Margherita, De Domenico, Carmela, Tripodi, Emanuela, Impallomeni, Caterina, Quartarone, Angelo, Cucinotta, Francesca
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Autism
Care and treatment
Caregivers
Cerebral palsy
Child development
Children & youth
Clinical medicine
Cognition & reasoning
Developmental delay
Motor ability
Patients
Performance evaluation
Pilot projects
Rehabilitation
Testing
Therapy
Traumatic brain injury
Virtual reality
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Summary:Global developmental delay (GDD) is a complex disorder that requires multimodal treatment involving different developmental skills. The objective of this single-blind, randomized, controlled pilot study is to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of conventional rehabilitation programs integrated with the BTs-Nirvana virtual reality system. Patients with GDD aged 12 to 66 months were enrolled and treated for a 48-session cycle. Patients were randomized into two groups, (1) conventional treatment and (2) conventional treatment supplemented with the use of BTs-Nirvana, in a 1:1 ratio. Before and after treatments, areas of global development were tested with the Griffiths-III Mental Developmental Scale and the clinical indicator of global improvement were measured with the Clinical Global Impressions-Improvement (CGI-I). Feasibility was confirmed by the high retention rate. The experimental group presented a significantly improvement in General Quotient (GQ) after treatment (GQ, = 0.02), and the effect of the two treatments was significantly different in both the GQ (t =2.44; = 0.02) and the Foundations of Learning subscale (t =3.66; < 0.01). The overall improvement was also confirmed by the CGI-I ( = 0.03). According to these preliminary data, virtual reality can be considered a useful complementary tool to boost the effectiveness of conventional therapy in children with GDD.
ISSN:2077-0383
2077-0383
DOI:10.3390/jcm12154962