ReviewFrontiers in psychology2026
Can AI-driven games enhance social skills for autistic children? - A three-level meta-analysis.
Review in Frontiers in psychology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
Background: Gamified interventions for autistic children are becoming increasingly diverse, enhancing their presence, immersion, and sense of accomplishment to improve various social skill indicators. Existing systematic reviews have primarily evaluated intervention effectiveness from the perspectives of game design and intervention objectives. However, these findings are inconsistent and fail to inspect specific improvements in social skills among autistic children. Methods: To address this gap, this study adopts a three-level meta-analysis approach from the perspective of AI-driven games, examining 14 relevant publications across 9 databases up to March 2026, totaling 37 effect sizes. At the same time, to understand the causes of heterogeneity, the study systematically examined the impact of seven moderating factors on intervention outcomes for autistic children: study design, sample size, intervention goals, measurement tools, intervention frequency, intervention duration, and artificial intelligence technology. Results: The overall effect size of AI-driven gamified interventions on the social skills of autistic children was Conclusion: This study provides preliminary evidence that current AI-based gamified interventions can effectively improve the social skills of autistic children. However, it should be noted that this study has certain limitations. Future research should include more high-quality RCTs to explore the validity of intervention effects and systematically examine the optimal configuration of different combinations of AI technologies and gamification elements.
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