Sistema de realimentação visual para avaliação de desempenho funcional e intervenção na propriocepção de crianças com Síndrome de Down

Abstract

This work aimed to verify the effect of a game therapy therapeutic protocol on the proprioception and postural balance of three children with Down Syndrome as well as the analysis of body images captured by the multicamera system used in this research in order to analyze functional performance and monitor the therapeutic evolution of children. The methodological outline of this research is a case study using a sample composed of three children clinically diagnosed with Down Syndrome: two females aged nine and ten and one male aged nine. During the first session their parents received information about the research objectives, performed anamnesis and replied a quality of life survey, the WHOQOL-BREF. Afterwards, children underwent two assessment, where the first one was the use of Psychomotor Battery Tool from Victor da Fonseca (1975) and the second one was the balance and risk of falling from own height using the Berg Balance Scale. Two children had shown dyspraxic psychomotor profile and the third a deficient psychomotor profile. After this initial assessment, children underwent a game therapy protocol which had its focus on proprioception training and body balance. It was composed by 12 sessions on the whole, 2 being held weekly and each of them lasting 40 minutes and containing three games. Serious games have been developed for use and evolution based on evaluation of the data provided by the Microsoft Kinect V2 sensor. After performing the game therapy protocol, the children underwent the same assessment they have done before and their parents replied the WHOQOL-BREF survey again. On the final evaluation, the three children have presented a score increase in the balance, lateralization, body notion and global praxis subunits. Also, all of them have presented an increase in the Berg Scale score. Regarding the analysis of the quality of life of parents and/or caregivers, an increase in the score was observed in all domains of the WHOQOL-BREF survey performed after the application of the game therapy protocol compared to the same one performed previously, highlighting the social relations domain. The analysis of body images was able to provide important estimated data for monitoring the children's response to the game, as well as the evolution due to the applied therapy