Use Of Virtual Reality For Motor Skill Testing: A Pilot Comparison Study

Motor skills are important for child development. There is increasing recognition of the high incidence of motor dysfunction in youth, and there are a dearth of standardized assessments for measuring motor milestones. However, there is room to improve available assessments to include technology for more robust quantitative data, greater engagement, and shorter duration that can be facilitated through virtual reality (VR). Establishing baseline efficacy of a VR game as a motor assessment tool in healthy populations is needed before evaluating use in rehabilitation settings. PURPOSE: To compare accuracy rate of a VR game developed as a screen for motor developmental delays, in comparison to a standard measure of motor testing. METHODS: Nine participants were recruited through a call across a campus at a university in the northeast. Participants completed the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency-2 (BOT-2) throwing task (participant throws ball at target five times). Participants then completed a VR throwing task using the Meta Quest Pro VR Headset (participant throws ball at VR target five times). Accuracy of throws was measured by the percentage of throws that hit the target for each paradigm. T-test (p ≤ .05) was used to test significant difference in accuracy between the two paradigms. RESULTS: Of the nine participants, eight were included in the analysis due to missing data. Average age of participants was 23 (2.74), 88.89% of the participants were female, and two participants were right-handed. Within the BOT-2 throwing task, 82.5% (15.6) of throws were accurate. Within the VR throwing task, 57.5% (21.1) of throws were accurate. There was a significant difference in accuracy of throwing between the BOT-2 task and the VR throwing task (p = .0174) CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study suggest that the BOT-2 throwing task and the VR throwing task produced different accuracy rates, and that the VR throwing task may be a more difficult task than a standard throwing task. The BOT-2 is a gold standard of motor development measurement, and a VR measurement tool should be able to model the parameters for that tool if it is to accurately measure motor skills through various tasks. Future research should investigate what factors contribute to the levels of difficulty in a VR and how that applies to real world motor skill testing.