MSICLIMB: A New Multisensory Device for Climbing and Sports Activities in Children with Neurodevelopmental Disabilities

In neonates and children, stroke is one of the most frequent causes of child disability. Most of the interventions are based on traditional physiotherapy or non-technological devices. Recent studies have shown that when more sensory signals are available, our brain takes advantage of multisensory integration. We designed, developed, and validated with preliminary data the MSICLIMB system: a Multisensory Climbing Wall device that proposes to use multisensorial skills combined with physical activities, to improve engagement in pediatric rehabilitation for children with stroke. In MSICLIMB, the rehabilitator controls the type of stimulation (e.g. audio, visual, or both), while the child attempts to execute climbing movements. It comes with a method to provide feedback related to the movement and multisensory perception. Given its sensory nature, our system is suitable for children with stroke and different levels of motor impairments. A demonstrative experiment was performed on adult participants using the technology of the device to assess the effects of the multisensory feedback on reaching movement. In the experiment, we showed the potential use of the system, by demonstrating that the combination of audio and visual stimuli produces quicker reaction times during reaching compared to auditory stimulation only. MSICLIMB is the first-ever science-based multisensory climbing technology for children with stroke. This is a particularly important need because there are currently no multisensory technological training solutions for early intervention in such populations.