Peer Mediation and Monitoring Strategies to Improve Initiations and Social Skills for Students with Autism

Abstract

Four students with autism and a group of nondisabled peers were taught to use and monitor social skills while playing games to increase initiations and social interaction skills. Social skills targeted for training included requesting, commenting, and sharing. A multiple baseline design across skills, with a counterbalanced reversal design, was used to document effects for student interactions with peers. In addition, alternating conditions for self-monitoring and peer-monitoring of skill usage were implemented to compare the two strategies. Results indicated that adult teaching and peer mediation of skills, paired with reinforcement for skill use and student monitoring, increased initiations and social interaction time with peers during intervention, as well as use of the targeted social skills. Little difference was noted between self- and peer-monitoring strategies.