Children in wheelchairs are experiencing the thrill of sports like snowboarding and volleyball for the first time as participants in an unprecedented project in the department of occupational therapy. Prof. Denise Reid is leading a two-year study, funded by Kids Action Research, investigating the therapeutic applications of virtual reality games for children with cerebral palsy. The children see themselves in a virtual scene where their upper-body actions interact with objects in the virtual world. “I’m interested in the effect on the children’s movements,” she says, “but more important is whether the activity makes a difference in terms of their self-efficacy – for example, how good it makes them feel about themselves to play sports they never believed they would be able to play.”
Recent Posts
Clearing the Air
U of T wants to drastically cut carbon emissions by 2050. It’s enlisting on-campus ingenuity for help
The Extremism Machine
Online disinformation poses a danger to society. Researchers at U of T’s Citizen Lab are tracking it – and trying to figure out how to stop it
Charting Hip Hop’s Course
Professor Mark V. Campbell grew up during the early years of rap music. Now, he is helping preserve Canadian hip-hop culture for future generations