Wii Purchases Bring Therapeutic Benefits Into Homes

New Wii Consoles flew off the shelves at retail outlets during the pre-holiday shopping sales. During one week in December, Walmart offered a $50 gift card for lucky customers who found Wiis in stock. So now many have a chance to experience Wii at home. In a UK paper an article explains ways to avoid injury when playing new games in the comfort of your own home.
New Wii owners, including those with chronic conditions express various ways they hope to use Wii in 2010. One Wii enthusiast with a spinal cord injury uses Wii to build arm strength. In an article entitled Wiiiiii!: Adaptive Exercise That’s Actually Fun the author offers good suggestions for therapeutic uses of Wii applications as well as suggestions for simple ways to make Wii applications more user friendly for this population.
New Wii owners with Multiple Sclerosis also recognize therapeutic value in Wii Sports and Wii Fit activities. Having Nintendo Wii in one's home allows the participant to pace themselves to avoid fatigue while playing many great games. Many Wii games increase flexibility and endurance.
Families with special needs children bought Wiis for home use. These families look forward to increased social interaction with their children. Social interaction in a safe environment may help improve social skills for these children. Wii activities offer opportunities for spontaneity; this area often challenges children with autism and other developmental delays. Also, during these cold winter months, the Wii offers an easy way to add more physical activity into a child's routine, providing an outlet for energy and the possibly of reducing negative behaviors such as tantrums.
While playing Wii participants need to follow safe practices to avoid injury. Players might also want to add wrist weights to increase the challenge. Parents might also want to speak with their child's occupational therapist for ideas for increasing challenge by altering positioning while playing certain Wii Sports activities.

Wii Benefits Across the Life Span

Students worked together to create a video touting the benefits of Wii-Hab. In this snappy video, viewers get an idea of how Wii is used to encourage improved muscle strength and flexibility in adults.

Children also benefit from using the Wii in therapy. The blog entry posted on October 5, 2009 shares with readers a story about Wii use in a classroom as an addition to traditional therapy. News station KEPR CBS 19 in Pasco, Washington posts a video of Wii being used in a school setting by therapists to improve coordination and balance.

Read Lon Thornburg’s great blog to learn more about creative uses of Wii with children who have developmental disabilities.

Wii-Hab Meets Medical Illustration

An artist, who received her MFA (Master of Fine Arts) in Advertising Design from Savannah College of Art and Design, which is located in my hometown of Savannah, GA, created wonderful visuals depicting the crucial aspects of Wii-Hab. Angela Moramarco infuses the very human components - the brain, the muscles, the bones and the soft tissue - into the very technical components - the remote and the console - of Nintendo Wii. These great illustrations tell a concise story. Nintendo Wii, when used correctly in a therapeutic setting, helps patients build new connections within the brain and between the brain and the muscles. For some patients therapy can be difficult and repetitious. Wii offers occupational and physical therapists a versatile tool to use as a part of the therapy plan not only for improving strength, endurance, and flexibility but also for improving sequencing and problem solving in a variety of patient settings including pediatrics (autism, cerebral palsey, PDD) and geriatrics (stroke, joint replacement, fall prevention).

The Benefits of Wii from a Patient's Perspective

Occupational therapists like to utilize a patient-center approach in all aspects of treatment.  According to this article, Nintendo Wii as Therapy and Fun For Multiple Sclerosis, Wii, from a patient's perspective, is both enjoyable and therapeutic when coping with Multiple Sclerosis.  

 Problems for those with multiple sclerosis include fatigue, balance, flexibility and motor control.  Wii provides an array of activities which encourage a person to use and improve balance, flexibility and motor control.  These activities are fun and engaging, helping the participant focus on what they can do.  These self-paced activities allow for frequent rests while providing excellent feedback on improvements in a fun format.  Wii sports games, such as Bowling, baseball and Tennis help with motor control and flexibility.  The training moduals for each sport records your progress while the fitness modual calculates your Wii Age and posts it for encouragement.  Wii fit has great activities for improving balance and flexibility.  All of these games can be played for short periods with rests as needed.  Wii therapy brings a smile to all who try it.  Have you tried wiihab in your clinical setting yet?