Meta-Analysis of RCTs of Technology-Assisted Parent-Mediated Interventions for Children with ASD.

Pi et al. (2022) pooled every randomized trial that used phones, tablets, or computers to coach parents of children with autism. They looked for papers where the tech helped parents teach social or emotional skills at home.

The team wanted to know if these high-tech parent programs moved the needle on two things: how well kids read others' feelings and how well kids calm themselves.

Across all trials, kids who got the tech-based parent coaching showed lower affective perspective taking and weaker emotion regulation than kids in control groups. These gaps predicted fewer kind, helpful acts with peers later on.

In plain words: when children with autism struggle to notice feelings or soothe themselves, they also struggle to share, help, or comfort friends months down the road.

Konstantareas et al. (2006) first showed that autistic children have shaky affect regulation and low effortful control. Ji’s 2022 meta-analysis widens the lens, proving the problem still shows up when parents get extra tech support.

Taylor et al. (2017) zoomed in on preschoolers and found the same delay, but only with non-family people. Ji’s work says the lag lasts past preschool and links directly to later prosocial skills, extending the timeline.

Pan et al. (2025) used eye-tracking to show that young autistic kids miss social-emotional cues and stay emotionally flat. Ji’s findings complete the circle: those early gaps forecast later peer problems, giving us the why behind the eye-track data.

If you run parent training, add a clear emotion-regulation module even when the main goal is social skills. Teach parents to label their own feelings, model calming strategies, and prompt the child to copy them during daily routines. A few extra minutes of ‘take a breath’ or ‘how can your body feel better?’ now can mean more sharing and helping on the playground next year.