Telerehabilitation in Children with Disabilities in the COVID-19 Pandemic from the Perspective of Families and Clinicians: Review

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected specific groups since it first emerged. After the precautions were taken, individuals had to rearrange their daily lives and routines. Due to the higher incidence of COVID-19 disease among elderly individuals, children with disability, who are a vulnerable population, have not been the focus of discussions related to the pandemic. The rapid global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has required education and health systems to develop new strategies and experience changes. In the health system, many institutions have switched to rapidly expanding telehealth infrastructure and applications. Telerehabilitation services for children with disability are an alternative to face-to-face clinical health services. Telerehabilitation has many advantages such as overcoming geographical barriers and reducing treatment costs, but it also has disadvantages such as low usage rate, low acceptance level by clinicians, and service payments. Our study aims to review the problems and developed solutions for rehabilitation applications in children with a disability during the COVID-19 pandemic, to examine the telerehabilitation applications, which are widely used in the pandemic process, from the perspective of families and clinicians, and to summarize innovative approaches and strategies for clinicians and researchers working in the field.