SpongeBob for stroke survivors
Student shows Wii games help hand function
SpongeBob SquarePants and aliens are helping Windsor stroke victims regain the use of their hands.
University of Windsor researcher Kate Paquin found that people recovering from a stroke who used the Wii gaming system over a two-month period improved an average of 17.5 per cent in their hand function.
Paquin, who recently defended her master’s degree in kinesiology based on her research, said regaining the use of hand and fine motor skills after a stroke can be one of the last obstacles to recovery. Many people just stop using their impaired hand and let it hang limp, she said. That’s where the Wii system’s uDraw tablet and games that involved SpongeBob SquarePants and Alien Splat (killing aliens with a fly swatter) came in.
“Nobody wants to do two hours of rehabilitation a day, but I’m sure some people could sit down and play two hours of video games and not real- ize that not that much time has gone by,” said Paquin, 25.
In her study, 10 people who had strokes one year to nine years ago participated in 16 sessions. They tended to have shaky hands or problems with their grasp.
A lot of Wii games involve use gross motor skills and have been used with seniors, but there isn’t as much rehabilitation with Wii being used for the hands, she said. She hasn’t seen other studies using the new uDraw tablet, which she called a miracle worker. She expects the improvement would grow over time if people kept up with the video games. Some people experienced as much as a 35 per cent improvement on some hand function tests, she said.
On top of physical improvements, participants reported their quality of life had increased 10 per cent, she said.
“They didn’t think they could use it before, but now they see the types of improvement they can have,” Paquin said. “So and so will say I didn’t used to use my hand before and now I’m using it to help hold a jar when I’m opening it or I’m using it to open doors now.”
An estimated 50,000 people have a stroke in Canada each year and 72 per cent of them survive it, she said. But 40 per cent of those survivors are living with impairment, and she expects those numbers to increase with an aging population.
She said 85 per cent of stroke survivors have some kind of hand impairment.
“I want to target more of those people who had a stroke, say, three years ago and they think nothing’s out there for them.” They often just think they’ll have to live with the impairment forever. “But that’s not the case,” she said.
The Windsor Essex Community Health Centre runs exercises for stroke victims, but it targets larger muscles. Paquin worked with stroke victims in those classes.
Donna Ofner, a physiotherapist with the centre’s chronicdisease management program, said in an email that it was a great pilot project and the Wii games will be added to the centre’s circuit program at the St. Denis Centre for clients with neurological conditions in the new year.
Paquin’s test subjects played Marble Mania, which is a tilt maze where you have to guide a marble using wrist motions using a Wii controller. As well, they played games that used the uDraw tablet with a stylus to draw on the screen. She said the Wii games could be used to work on your fine motor skills and connect with your grandchildren.