Objective To compare the effect of combined therapy and the effect of functional training on children with cerebral palsy. Methods The randomized controlled trials(RCT) published from 2005 to 2020 about the effect of acupuncture and massage combined with functional training on cerebral palsy were recalled from the databases of PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Ebsco Medline, CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, and SinoMed. The methodological quality of the included RCTs was evaluated. The data were extracted, and meta-analyzed with the age boundary of 3 years by RevMan 5.4. The sensitivity analysis and publication bias analysis were in progress with Stata15.0. The classification of evidence was finished with GRADEpro. Results There are 19 Chinese RCTs, involving 1 812 children. The effective rate of the combined therapy group is 89.19% while the effective rate of the functional training group is 69.38%. There is no significant difference between the two age groups. Three secondary indicators show that combined therapy improves the motor ability better: Barthel Index[SMD=3.16, 95%CI(2.91, 3.40), P＜0.0001], Gross Motor Function Measure(GMFM)[SMD=1.40, 95%CI (1.08, 1.73), P＜0.000 1], Functional Comprehensive Assessment(FCA)[SMD=0.53, 95%CI(0.35, 0.71), P＜0.000 1]. Combined therapy improves the GMFM in the first subgroup (within 3 years old) faster than that in the second subgroup (3 to 6 years old). Egger’s analysis shows that there is no publication bias in three indicators. GRADE Evidence Quality Classification shows the effective rate, Barthel Index and FCA are rated as medium level, while GMFM is at a low level. Conclusion The curative effect and the rehabilitation speed of acupuncture and massage combined with functional training for children with cerebral palsy are higher than those of functional training.