All we hear about is how video games are bad for children, but believe it or not, some video games are doing serious good.
Grace McShane, a 7-year-old girl who was partially paralyzed following a brain hemorrhage, is just one of the children experiencing the benefit of video games.
The game is called Diego, and it’s a brand new robot currently being used at the Great North Children’s Hospital in Newcastle, UK.
Of course, this isn’t your traditional first-person shooter. This robot supports the arms of paralyzed children with overhead cables, and then uses sensors to detect the child’s elbow and wrist positions.
From there, virtual reality games are created to help the child move their “arms” more effectively in the game than they can in reality.
This way, patients like Grace McShane can re-learn how to move paralyzed parts of their body, helping them to recover more quickly.
Grace suffered her hemorrhage after a family holiday when she was six. She complained of a headache, and her mother tucked her into bed, thinking it was just exhaustion from the journey. But the next morning, her mother couldn’t wake her up.
Due to her hemorrhage, Grace suffered left-sided facial palsy, as well as weakness in her left arm and leg.
Diego has been integral to her physical therapy, and with help, it’s gotten her to the point where she can walk on her own, use stairs, and use her left shoulder and arm. With more use of Diego, doctors hope she’ll regain control of her left hand, as well.
Specialists who use Diego in their treatment hope that it will become a more widespread tool, providing children with brain injuries with the assistance they need.
