Soar to Success November 2021

SOAR TO SUCCESS / Feature Article problems and finally decided to put my fears aside and just go for it, to make a difference and solve those issues myself.” Lindsay always felt that the best therapists pay more attention to what interests each child. In turn, she then leverages that to gain the child’s trust and attention during the therapy session. Parents know that technology has become a driving force for children. Lindsay sought a way to use children’s fascination with video games to create a program to better gain access to the child’s mind/body connection during therapy. When she started, there were no tools, or APPs available. She watched and even played hours of popular children’s video games, such as Pokemon Go. From that she developed an augmented therapy plan, and her company, Augment Therapy, Inc, which uses common elements within children’s video games and combines them with evidence-based exercises for therapeutic benefit. “In Augment Therapy, we create immersive technology experiences for the child for therapeutic benefit. Children are engaged through an application on an iPhone, or an iPad. Using patient-facing augmented reality games, we modify their environment and the therapy experience. We are doing basic physical and occupational therapy exercises, but we put them in a gaming environment, and can simultaneously capture data points on their movement, for later analysis.” Lindsay has even been able to adapt her software platform for use at home so that the child doesn’t need to visit the clinic. Using virtual telehealth, she can remotely monitor the child’s reactions to the games and gauge their progress. The game is designed with the child as the star. “The child is the star of the show, or game. We use an actual image of the child, capture it and put it on the television screen, then we alter the environment. For example, their family room now becomes a swamp, and they must jump into it. In one exercise, we put the child into a virtual snow globe, where the child must shift their weight, onto a leg that has been perhaps surgically repaired and needs therapy, to make it snow inside the globe.” This takes the boring and sometimes painful drudgery of therapy out of the equation for