Digital health technologies for supporting home-based rehabilitation and management of children with cerebral palsy: a scoping review.

OBJECTIVES

This review aims to map and summarise evidence on digital health technologies (DHTs) for home-based rehabilitation in children with cerebral palsy (CP), including technology types, usage, outcomes, adoption barriers and evidence gaps.

DESIGN

This scoping review follows the Arksey and O'Malley framework, incorporates updates from Levac et al and is reported in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines for scoping reviews.

DATA SOURCES: 10 electronic databases were searched from inception, with individual database searches last updated between 17 September 2025 and 6 June 2026, including PubMed, Cochrane Library, EBSCOhost, Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, Scopus, PEDro, OTseeker, IEEE Xplore and ACM Digital Library.

ELIGIBILITY: Peer-reviewed primary studies involving children under 18 with CP receiving DHTs for home-based rehabilitation were included. Studies in clinical settings or not published in English were excluded.

DATA EXTRACTION: Two reviewers independently extracted data with a third reviewer resolving disagreements. Quantitative results were summarised with basic statistics; qualitative results were analysed using thematic analysis per Joanna Briggs Institute methods. The review did not compare the effectiveness of different technologies.

RESULTS

52 studies were included covering eight technology categories. Telerehabilitation/telehealth and virtual reality/exergaming were most common. Outcomes covered six domains, with upper limb motor function most frequently assessed. The main facilitators were gamification, cost-effectiveness and caregiver capacity building; the main barriers were access and equipment constraints, methodological limitations and connectivity issues. Five evidence gaps were identified: small sample sizes, short follow-up periods, limited representation of low- and middle-income countries, inconsistent outcome measures and a lack of real-world validation.

CONCLUSIONS

Randomised controlled trials, standardised outcome sets and scalable, culturally appropriate digital health solutions are needed, especially for low- and middle-income countries. Future reviews should consider including specialist databases.