Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34572233›Full record

ArticleChildren (Basel, Switzerland)2021

Symbolic Play among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Scoping Review.

Francisco González-Sala, Irene Gómez-Marí, Raúl Tárraga-Mínguez, Alba Vicente-Carvajal, Gemma Pastor-Cerezuela

Open access · goldAbstract readScoping Review
In one paragraph

Article in Children (Basel, Switzerland), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
18citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
3.1field-weighted citation impact, top 8% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 50 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Trial
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Motor organisation of social play in children with autism.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2025
    Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Infants who develop autism show smaller inventories of deictic and symbolic gestures at 12 months of age.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2024
    Article
  13. Article
  14. How Do Children Play with Toy Trains and for What Benefits? A Scoping Review.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2023
    Article
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  16. Article
  17. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Francisco González-SalaDepartment of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Valencia, 46010 València, Spain.ORCID 0000-0003-4124-7459
Irene Gómez-MaríDepartment of Education and School Management, University of Valencia, 46010 València, Spain.ORCID 0000-0002-0452-3293
Raúl Tárraga-MínguezDepartment of Education and School Management, University of Valencia, 46010 València, Spain.ORCID 0000-0002-4458-5763
Alba Vicente-CarvajalDepartment of Developmental and Educational Psychology, University of Valencia, 46010 València, Spain.
Gemma Pastor-CerezuelaDepartment of Basic Psychology, University of Valencia, 46010 València, Spain.ORCID 0000-0002-4992-4701
Universitat de València · ES

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Symbolic play is considered an early indicator in the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and its assessment. The objective of this study was to analyze the difficulties in symbolic play experienced by children with ASD and to determine the existence of differences in symbolic play among children with ASD, children with other neurodevelopmental disorders and children with typical development. A scoping review was carried out in the Web of Science (WoS), Scopus, ERIC, and PsycInfo databases, following the extension for scoping reviews of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. The number of papers included in the review was 22. The results confirm that children with ASD have greater difficulties with symbolic play than children with other neurodevelopmental disorders and children with typical development, even when controlling for their verbal age. Difficulties are greater in situations of free or spontaneous play. Results evidenced that the absence or deficiency in the symbolic play can serve as an early indicator of ASD between the first and second year of life, the developmental moment in which this type of play begins.

Indexed as

autism spectrum disorderneurodevelopmental disorderspretend playsymbolic playtoddlers

Identifiers

PMID34572233
PMCPMC8470741
OpenAlexW3199453631

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.