Established in 2010, Limbs Alive specialises in the rehabilitation of the hand and arm for people of all ages who have hemiplegia, total paralysis of the arm, leg, and trunk on the same side of the body. Hemiplegia often occurs as the result of a stroke. Strokes commonly effect the brain that controls movement and a stroke can result in weakness in one side of the body. Limbs Alive is a therapy tool to strengthen and ‘re-teach’ your muscles how to work. Children learn through playing, so that’s why Limbs Alive is perfect for kids. The game teaches your muscles how to move by playing a video game specifically designed to improve the use and mobility of certain muscles. Unlike traditional video games, Limbs Alive does not use controllers with small buttons that require very deliberate hand movements. The player moves their whole hand and body to play the game. You can check out a YouTube video of the game here.
The video game, Limbs Alive, cleverly disguised as therapy fits into a person’s life instead of making your life fit around the therapy. The game helps patients regain hand use, arm use and hand-eye coordination. It allows patients to do therapy at home with the supervision of a therapist or a loved one. It also makes therapy available to more people as it is an more affordable cost. Also, therapists can have more patients since therapy can be done at home.
Limbs Alive was founded in 2010 by a professor and a senior occupational therapist at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom.