Assessment of Navigation Abilities in Children With Cerebral Palsy and Their Peers

Participants with cerebral palsy are recruited.

They undergo a baseline assessment (including cognitive level and pen and paper tests for visuo-spatial abilities). Then they perform a spatial navigation assessment with an immersive virtual reality application delivered by the Oculus Quest viewer. The spatial navigation application consists of a 5-way star-maze adapted from (Biffi et al 2020 Front. Psychol.) where the participants have to find a treasure hidden at the end of one way. The application measures both the learning of spatial information and the strategy used (egocentric or allocentric).

After the session, the participants fill questionnaires related to cyber-sickness and usability of the application.

Typically developing children are recruited.

They undergo a baseline assessment (including cognitive level and pen and paper tests for visuo-spatial abilities). Then they perform a spatial navigation assessment with an immersive virtual reality application delivered by the Oculus Quest viewer. The spatial navigation application consists of a 5-way star-maze adapted from (Biffi et al 2020 Front. Psychol.) where the participants have to find a treasure hidden at the end of one way. The application measures both the learning of spatial information and the strategy used (egocentric or allocentric).

After the session, the participants fill questionnaires related to cyber-sickness and usability of the application.

The navigation strategy is measured by the application "StarMaze" delivered by the Oculus Quest viewer and it could be egocentric or allocentric. The strategy is egocentric if the participant finds the treasure in the virtual space by using a self-centred trajectory. The strategy is allocentric if the participant find the treasure in the virtual space by using a trajectory based on environmental cues.

The learning rate of correct path to follow to find the treasure strategy is measured by the application "StarMaze" delivered by the Oculus Quest viewer. It is the number of trials required by the participant to reach a stable performance

The questionnaire evaluates the effects of cyber sickness. Participants have to score 16 symptoms on a four-point scale (0-3).The symptoms can be placed into three general categories: oculomotor, disorientation, and nausea. Weights are assigned to each of the categories and summed together to obtain a single score.

It evaluates the usability of the system. The SUS is a simple, ten-item five-point Likert scale giving a global view of subjective assessments of usability.

It is a 5-point Likert scale, composed of 44 items. This questionnaire evaluates the user experience to understand if the person enjoyed the game, the setting, and the overall experience. In particular, the questionnaire addresses four factors: spatial presence, engagement, realness of the environment, and side effects (cyber sickness).

It evaluates the sense of agency with four questions (likert scale 1-5) and one open question.

In the questionnaire, the participant must evaluate how much s/he feels in the way described by the adjective when filling out the questionnaire, responding on a 5-point Likert scale. The PANAS provides measures of Positive Affects (PAs) and Negative Affects (NAs). The PA and NA scores are the sums of the ratings of the PA items and the NA items, respectively. PA indicates the level of pleasurable engagement with the product while NA is a general factor of subjective distress.