A preparatory study for measuring engagement in pediatric virtual and robotics rehabilitation settings

The rehabilitation intervention in children with motor or cognitive impairments requires to be effectively measured in terms of engagement to understand the effects of the rehabilitation process and to enable more targeted interventions leading to improved experiences for both children and rehabilitation therapists. Indeed, the rehabilitation practice may be enhanced by attending to the client's signals of engagement in therapy. In this paper, we present the results of the validation of the PARE scale (Pediatric Assessment of Rehabilitation Engagement) that was designed to capture the dimensions of affective, cognitive, and behavioral engagement in the interaction of clients-rehabilitation providers. Results showed that the scale can be effectively used for the measurement of the different components of engagement in intervention settings to support therapeutic virtual scenarios or the application of robots to treat motor and cognitive impairments.