Barron Associates Awarded NIH Grant to Develop Therapy Games for Children with Cerebral Palsy

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development has awarded Barron Associates, Inc. a grant titled “Motivating Occupational Virtual Experiences In Therapy for kids (MOVE-IT).” The program will support intensive rehabilitation for pediatric hemiplegia through mixed-reality games that inspire high-dosage, task-directed upper extremity (UE) movements. The MOVE-IT system will combine virtual- and real-world physical elements to provide therapists with a turn-key solution that engages patients in repetitive practice, facilitating evidence-based approaches. A web-based provider dashboard will enable therapists to track patient status, manage difficulty settings, as well as generate reports that document activity and progress via game-derived metrics that will be validated as part of the 1-year, $208K Phase I activity.