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This study received grant support from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII CM19/00026), and the Conchita Rabago Foundation.

Analysis of institutional authors

Moreno, MAuthorBaca-Garcia, EAuthor

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March 22, 2021
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Review
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Video Games for the Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review

Publicated to:JOURNAL OF AUTISM AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS. 52 (1): 169-188 - 2022-01-01 52(1), DOI: 10.1007/s10803-021-04934-9

Authors: Jimenez-Munoz, Laura; Penuelas-Calvo, Inmaculada; Calvo-Rivera, Pilar; Diaz-Olivan, Isaac; Moreno, Manon; Baca-Garcia, Enrique; Porras-Segovia, Alejandro

Affiliations

CIBERSAM, Madrid, Spain - Author
Fdn Jimenez Diaz, Inst Invest Sanitaria, Madrid, Spain - Author
Hosp Reina Sofia Cordoba, Dept Psiquiatria Infantojuvenil, Cordoba, Spain - Author
Hosp Univ Cent Villalba, Dept Psiquiatria, Madrid, Spain - Author
Hosp Univ Fdn Jimenez Diaz, Dept Psiquiatria Infantojuvenil, Madrid, Spain - Author
Hosp Univ Fdn Jimenez Diaz, Dept Psiquiatria, Madrid, Spain - Author
Hosp Univ Rey Juan Carlos, Mostoles, Spain - Author
Hosp Univ Valdemoro, Madrid, Spain - Author
Univ Autonoma Madrid, Dept Psiquiatria, Madrid, Spain - Author
Univ Catolica Maule, Dept Psiquiatria, Talca, Chile - Author
Univ Complutense Madrid, Fac Psicol, Madrid, Spain - Author
Univ Nimes, Nimes, France - Author
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Abstract

Video games are a promising area of intervention for children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). However, reviews on this topic are scarce. This review on studies exploring video games for the treatment of ASD followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, and its protocol was registered in PROSPERO. PubMed, PsycInfo, Embase, WebOfScience and clinicaltrials.gov databases were searched. Twenty-four articles were included in the review. Video game-based interventions were effective for alleviating ASD symptoms, albeit with small effect sizes. High rates of acceptability and adherence to treatment were obtained. Conclusion: Video games are a promising area for improving the treatment of children with ASD. Exploring commercial video games is one of the lines for future research.

Keywords

asdautism spectrum disorderchildrencognitionehealthtrainingAsdAutism spectrum disorderChildrenCognitionEhealthTrainingVideo games

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal JOURNAL OF AUTISM AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDERS due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2022, it was in position 16/77, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Psychology, Developmental.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 13.45. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 11.28 (source consulted: FECYT Feb 2024)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-10-23, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 32
  • Scopus: 44

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-10-23:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 193.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 195 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 10.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 8 (Altmetric).

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Chile; France.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (Jimenez-Munoz, L) .