Although many rehabilitation approaches have been used to restore the basic cognitive and physical skills, none offers the potential power, flexibility, and universality of current microcomputer technology. The research proposed here is threefold. First, possibilities will be investigated for equipping a standard microcomputer with a wide variety of nontraditional input modalities. Second, software will be designed and implemented which presents thereapy tasks involving these input modalities independently and in combination. Third, software application generators will be developed so that the therapist can create specialized sets of training programs to meet the specific requirements of each patient. The proposed diagnostic and therapeutic tool can offer many advantages over conventional rehabilitation. The microcomputer's attributes of color, sound, and motion give it a certain inherent fascination and allurement that make it a highly motivational device and one which provokes attention. It will be consistent and objective and reproducible in ways that are not otherwise possible.
