Table 4.
Items related to risk of bias of included studies
| Author, year | Main limitations | Funding sources | Declarations of interest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Josman et al. (2008) | NS | NS | NS |
| Cosper et al. (2009) | Lack of control group, small sample size, patients with comorbidity diagnosis, very little research to support Interactive Metronome training | NS | NS |
| Lo et al. (2009) | NS | NS | NS |
| Gentry et al. (2010) | Non-random, non-representative sample, small sample size, lack of control group, evaluation and training administered by the same people | Program development grant from the Commonwealth Neurotrauma Initiative Fund | NS |
| Wuang et al. (2010) | Restricted age range, lack of control group | NS | NS |
| Palsbo and Hood-Szivek (2012) | Absence of a valid instrument for functional measurement of fine motor control, small sample size, unable to assess the representativeness of all children with dysgraphia, improvements in self-esteem or social and family inclusion were not assessed | National Institutes for Disability Rehabilitation and Research Grant No. H133S070082 and by Obslap Research, LLC | NS |
| Lee et al. (2013) | Minimum number of participants (n = 2), results difficult to generalize, short intervention duration, high initial scores in the recognition subsection, which limited the monitoring of participants' progress | NS | NS |
| Janeslätt et al. (2014) | High dropout rate (21%), small sample size, high participants variability, measurement instruments have not been used previously to assess change over time | Clas Groschinskys Minnesfond and Centre for Clinical Research in Dalarna and Stiftelsen Sunnerdahls Handikappfond | The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest |
| Lorah et al. (2014) | Highly structured and systematic nature of intervention procedures, generalization outside the training environment was not assessed, use of the same stimuli in all training sessions | NS | NS |
| Campbell et al. (2015) | Short study duration, small sample size | Did not receive funding support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article | The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest |
| Chen et al. (2015) | NS | NS | NS |
| Meister and Salls (2015) | Short study duration, consistency of performance over time not assessed, generalization in other contexts and at other times not assessed, lack of control group | NS | NS |
| Gal et al. (2016) | Small sample size, lack of control group | Autism speaks and the FBK-Haifa agreement | The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest |
| Henning et al. (2016) | Small sample size, lack of randomization, methodological problems during home visits | NS | NS |
| Ikuta et al. (2016) | Small sample size, lack of control group, 4 participants refused to wear earmuffs or NC headphones, and 5 others refused to wear NC headphones (limited NC headphone period behavioral data), adverse and long-term effects were not examined, age, gender, general intelligence, functional level of participants, frequency of intervention, and duration of device use were not controlled | Grant-in-aid for Scientific Research (C) no. 21500473 from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science | The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest |
| Lee et al. (2016) | Small sample size, limited time for testing | Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (MOST 104-2420-H-006-020-MY3) | The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest |
| Hatfield et al. (2017) | The diagnosis of ASD was based on parental report and confirmed by SRS-2, high dropout rate for adolescents (10% control; 31% intervention), Quasi-random, non-blinded intervention assignment, no follow-up or information on work performance was collected | Australian Postgraduate Award scholarship from the Australian Federal Government and Curtin University. Financial support of the Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism (Autism CRC) under the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centers Program | The authors declare that they have read Biomed Central’s guidance on competing interests and wish to declare the following interests: MH developed the BOOST-A and was also the first author of the manuscript which describes the effectiveness of the BOOST-A |
| Hochhauser et al. (2018) | Measurement instrument with a low internal consistency, the transference of acquired behaviors to daily life was not assessed | The Erasmus Mundus Action 2 program of the European Union | NS |
| Lamash and Josman (2021) | Small sample size, ASD symptomatology was not directly measured, no follow-up, not designed as a randomized controlled trial, did not follow all CONSORT guidelines | NS | The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest |
| Parsons et al. (2019) | Dosage and fidelity of intervention were lower than prescribed, high dropout rate (n = 12) | Lishman Health Foundation and support of South West Autism Group (SWAN) and Telethon Kids Institute | The authors (and funders) have no affiliation with the application or its developers and will not receive, or have previously received, any royalties from sales |
NS not stated