Effects of therapeutic instrumental music performance on upper limb motor function of children with cerebral palsy: A systematic review.

Therapeutic instrumental music performance (TIMP) can be used to improve limb motor function in children with cerebral palsy (CwCP). The purpose of this systematic review is to further analyze the potential therapeutic effects of TIMP on upper limb motor function in CwCP. We used the terms ""music,"" ""therapeutic instrumental music performance,"" ""musical instruments,"" ""cerebral palsy,"" ""children,"" ""upper limb,"" and ""upper extremity"" as our search keywords, and conducted a search of articles published in English and Chinese databases: PubMed, Cochrane, Web of Science, Wiley Online Library, CINAHL, and CNKI, Wanfang Data as of March 2025. Initially, 409 articles were retrieved. After screening titles and abstracts and assessing eligibility, eight studies were included in this review. All studies assessed hand fine motor function, and five also evaluated upper limb gross motor function. Three studies used only keyboard instruments, two exclusively percussion instruments, and three combined keyboard, percussion, and plucked instruments. The results demonstrated that TIMP effectively improves upper limb motor function in CwCP.