Gamified system for supporting children's physical rehabilitation

Abstract

The paper substantiates the need to develop innovative approaches to the physical rehabilitation of children with autism spectrum disorders, given the rising number of diagnosed cases both globally and domestically. The authors highlight the issues of sensory overload and the rapid loss of patient interest associated with traditional therapy methods. The study aims to create and implement a gamified rehabilitation system that combines therapeutic play with automated biometric data analysis. The object of the study is the process of sensorimotor integration within physical therapy, while the subject is a hardware-software system based on the Unity game engine that interacts with a balance board. Based on an analysis of existing solutions (such as the Scratch environment), the study employs object-oriented design methods, hardware integration of sensors (accelerometers and gyroscopes) for motion capture, and data analysis algorithms implemented in Python. The scientific novelty of the results lies in the development of an adaptive difficulty mechanism capable of dynamically adjusting the game environment (e.g., speed and object appearance patterns) based on the patient's specific motor and cognitive challenges. The practical significance of the work lies in the creation of the "Guard the Gard" project – a tool that eliminates psycho-emotional barriers in the interaction between the rehabilitation specialist and the child, while converting the clinician's subjective observations into precise digital metrics. Conditions have been established to optimize the workflow of medical staff through a local analysis module that automatically generates graphical reports based on session data. The conclusions highlight the potential for further scaling the system by integrating motion controllers, transitioning to a cloud-based architecture for medical record storage, and expanding the product's target audience to include the rehabilitation of patients with musculoskeletal disorders.