Rehabilitation Games and Virtual Reality Laboratory

A message from Dr. Danielle Levac:

It has been a wonderful 6 years at Northeastern and I am thankful to all of the children, families, clinicians and researchers who supported our research efforts in the Lab. Thank you to all who took part in our research studies, supported our recruitment efforts and attended our events. As I begin a new professional journey at the University of Montreal, I look forward to continuing projects in progress in Boston, including our active grant from the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy & Developmental Medicine (AACPDM). We will share our findings as they become available!

I am thrilled that Dr. Leanne Chukoskie will be joining the PTMRS faculty and taking over as ReGame-VR Lab Director, bringing her amazing expertise and exciting research directions to the mentorship of students in the Lab. Stay tuned for more information about Dr. Chukosie's work and opportunities to take part in her research!

We are recruiting children aged 8-14 years for remote (home-based) as well as in-person virtual reality studies!

In the lab, children visit the lab for 1.5 hours to learn a new motor skill in an immersive virtual reality head-mounted display.

At home, we will drop off the Oculus Quest and children participate in the study via Zoom. There are 2, 1.5 hour sessions.

More information about the lab study (IRB #17-10-28) and the link to sign up is here: https://neu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0w8v42z6Fo9JJoq

More information about the home-based study (IRB #21-03-07) and the link to sign up is here: https://neu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bfqbw52C0PaVYDr

Children receive an e-gift card as a token of appreciation for participating!

Thank you to all the families who completed our research participation survey! The winner of the random draw has been notified. We appreciate your time and look forward to reaching out soon about study participation!

Are you in the Boston, MA area and interested in having your 8-16 year old child participate in a virtual reality research study in your home or in our lab? Please complete our short (4 questions) survey about your perspectives regarding research participation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Responses are anonymous, and you have the option to enter your email to be entered in a draw to win 1 $50 gift card. Email addresses are not linked to responses.

Thank you!

ReGame-VR Lab Family Research Participation Survey The Rehabilitation Games & Virtual Reality Lab is interested in your perspectives on participating in research activities in the context of COVID-19.

For children with disabilities who need behavioral and social skills support, the pandemic has substantial negative consequences. In our survey with the SMILe Lab, over 70% of parents whose child received ABA services before the pandemic reported declines in their child's behavior and social skills during the pandemic. See our infographic below to learn more.

For children with disabilities who need behavioral and social skills support, the pandemic has substantial negative consequences. In our survey with Rehabilitation Games and Virtual Reality Laboratory, over 70% of parents whose child received ABA services before the pandemic reported declines in their child's behavior and social skills during the pandemic. See our infographic below to learn more.

65% of parents of school-aged children with disabilities who responded to our survey reported that their children lost physical therapy services at some point during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The majority of respondents noted that the teletherapy services they received were less effective than in-person interventions.

Check out these and other findings in the latest infographic illustrating results from our survey of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on therapy service provision for children with disabilities here:https://web.northeastern.edu/regamevrlab/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/PT-OT-SLP-Comparision-10-23_compressed.pdf SMILe Lab

Not unexpectedly, computer use for therapy purposes increased by 112% for school-aged children with disabilities during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US. Check out our infographic for more of our early survey results! SMILe Lab Thank you again to all of the families who took the time to fill out our survey.

Make Therapeutic Exercise Fun: Webinar with Makers Making Change Join us for an information session with Makey Makey and Makers Making Change to become eligible for a free Makey Makey and free course designed for creating easy DIY assistive technology for occupational, speech and physical therapists. Full Post on Makers Making Change In this intro session, Michig...

Thank you SMILe Lab for sharing this important information today!

Home | My Cerebral Palsy Join a community of people with cerebral palsy who are committed to improving outcomes through research!

Don't miss this informative event!

Tune in this Tuesday, September 15th at 3PM EST for a Facebook Live with Kristen Allison, Ph.D., CCC-SLP. She is a speech-language pathologist and an assistant professor at Northeastern University, where she directs the Speech Motor Impairment and Learning (SMILe Lab). Her research focuses on improving speech and communication outcomes for children with cerebral palsy and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Teletherapy filled some of the gaps, but parents overall felt it was less effective and missed the relational aspects of in-person services. SMILe Lab

Over 400 families responded to our survey with SMILe Lab about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their school-aged children with disabilities.

43% of children lost ALL their therapy services at some point during the early months of the pandemic.