“All he wants to do is get involved”
Thursday, September 5th, 2019
“Max often watches his brother and sister play games and all he wants to do is get involved,” said Jacob, one of our specialist therapy team.
He’s explaining why Max, a seven year-old with cerebral palsy and dystonia, came to our games room with his family to try out some gaming access tech.
Max finds controlling his limbs very strenuous, but he did had some voluntary control of his head.
“We loaded up Mario Kart on the Nintendo Switch, which his siblings play a lot,” said Jacob. “Then we placed a button switch in his headrest, which acted as the accelerate button. The smart steering option was turned on, so he didn’t need a joystick to steer.”
“We also gave Max the option of a wobble switch – a special switch that acts like a lever – near his hand to act as an item throw. Now he’s got the option of having his brother and sister help him play alongside or against him.”
It was so wonderful to see Max smiling as he raced his car independently for the first time!
Above: Max’s brother helps him throw bananas under his racing rivals by steadying his hand over the red wobble switch. The inset shows his blue headswitch.