Background
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) poses a significant threat to children’s health. Cognitive rehabilitation for pediatric TBI has the potential to improve the quality of life following the injury. Virtual reality (VR) can provide enriched cognitive training in a life-like but safe environment. However, existing VR applications for pediatric TBIs have primarily focused on physical rehabilitation.
Objective
This study aims to design and develop an integrative hardware and software VR system to provide rehabilitation of executive functions (EF) for children with TBI, particularly in 3 core EF: inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility.
Methods
The VR training system was developed by an interdisciplinary team with expertise in best practices of VR design, developmental psychology, and pediatric TBI rehabilitation. Pilot usability testing of this novel system was conducted among 10 healthy children and 4 children with TBIs.
Results
Our VR-based interactive cognitive training system was developed to provide assistive training on core EF following pediatric TBI. Pilot usability testing showed adequate user satisfaction ratings for both the hardware and software components of the VR system.
Conclusions
This project designed and tested a novel VR-based system for executive function rehabilitation that is specifically adapted to children following TBI.
Objectives: To characterize the demographics, clinical course, and predictors of cognitive recovery among children and young adults receiving inpatient rehabilitation following pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI). Design: Retrospective observational, multicenter study. Setting: Eight acute pediatric inpatient rehabilitation facilities in the United States with specialized programs for treating patients with TBI. Participants: Children and young adults (0-21 years) with TBI (n = 234) receiving inpatient rehabilitation. Interventions: Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures: Admission and discharge status assessed by the WeeFIM Cognitive Developmental Functional Quotient (DFQ) and Cognitive and Linguistic Scale (CALS). Results: Patients admitted to pediatric inpatient rehabilitation are diverse in cognitive functioning. While the majority of patients make improvements, cognitive recovery is constrained for those admitted with the most severe cognitive impairments. Age, time since injury to rehabilitation admission, and admission WeeFIM Cognitive DFQ are significant predictors of cognitive functioning at discharge from inpatient rehabilitation. Conclusions: This work establishes a multicenter Pediatric Brain Injury Consortium and characterized the demographics and clinical course of cognitive recovery during inpatient rehabilitation of pediatric patients with TBI to aid in prospective study design.
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