What sounds more fun to you: playing a video game, or doing physical therapy that your doctor wants you to do? Most, if not all children, are going to choose the video game, and skip the therapy. A professor has designed a video game that encourages kids with cystic fibrosis to do their therapy.
Cystic fibrosis is a disease that causes a person’s body to produce thick, sticky mucus. It can build up and cause problems with the person’s lungs, pancreas, and other organs. It can also can cause serious problems with breathing. Right now, there is no cure for cystic fibrosis.
Treatment for cystic fibrosis starts soon after the child is diagnosed. It can involve methods to help get rid of the mucus, a diet of healthy foods, and potentially even an exercise component. One of the forms of therapy comes in the form of respiratory therapy. The overall purpose of this therapy is to slow down damage to the lungs, and to improve breathing.
In addition to medication and antibiotics, a child with cystic fibrosis may be doing deep breathing exercises and directed coughing. Any form of physical therapy takes both time and effort, and can be seen as a chore to children who have cystic fibrosis. Kids don’t tend to deal well with boredom. If given the choice between spending time playing a video game, or stopping to do their breathing exercises, many kids with cystic fibrosis will chose the fun activity over the therapy.
Professor Peter Bingham, who is from the University of Vermont, and also from Fletcher Allen Health Care, decided to combine the two things. Video games were created that used a spirometer, instead of a hand held controller, motion sensor, or keyboard. The games themselves were designed to include the important components of the physical therapy that kids with cystic fibrosis would need to do every day. The idea was that if you can make respiratory therapy fun, then the kids would choose to do it.
One of the games is a race game that involves driving a car. Another game is called Creep Frontier. This game involves battling globs of slime by blowing air bubbles at them. The interface in the game feels a lot like the Pokemon games. Kids can move the avatar around the environment, and attack the slime that covers a cartoon animal. Moving over certain spaces will trigger an attack, just like in the Pokemon games. The difference is, instead of pushing buttons to attack the slime, the child will use the spirometer and attack by blowing air in a directed way.
Image by SOCIALisBETTER on Flickr