Incorporating general education peers into social skills instructional programs has been effective at increasing social interaction of high school students with intellectual disabilities and autism with their classmates. In this study, communication book use (Hughes et al., 2000), combined with providing the opportunity to interact, was associated with increases in conversational initiations and responses of five high school students identified with intellectual disabilities and autism and their general education peers. We also addressed a limitation of Hughes et al. (2000) by expanding the role of peers during generalization to (a) engage in conversational interactions that were more reciprocal and typical of high school student dyads and (b) provide support to participants while interacting. This study adds to the few published social skills interventions involving high school students with intellectual disabilities and autism in inclusive settings and extends findings to a population of students with more varied communication characteristics.

Self-prompted communication books were used in combination with conversational peer orientation to increase conversational interactions of verbal high school students with autism or autistic-like behavior with their peers without disabilities. Previous investigators have used communication books only with students with autism or intellectual disability with limited or no verbal or reading skills. The six high school participants in this study could read and were verbal. We sought to determine whether the communication books would be accepted by peers without disabilities in general education classrooms or whether the books would stigmatize the students with disabilities. Finally, we assessed the effects of having a peer with a learning disability as the teacher of conversational interaction skills. We interpreted our results to conclude that the communication book package was associated with increased conversational interactions for all participants with their general education peers and that communication books were viewed positively by conversational partners.

We reviewed studies to identify strategies effective at increasing social interaction skills across a range of secondary school students with autism and/or intellectual disability who experienced limited peer interaction. We were particularly interested in identifying strategies that involved peers and were effective at increasing peer interaction beyond the instructional setting. We identified 13 intervention studies that we analyzed by (a) participant characteristics, settings, and outcomes measured; (b) effective instructional strategies, including role ofpeers and programming for generalization, related to generalized effects of social interaction interventions; (c) the relation ofparticipant characteristics, type of intervention, and generalization effects; (d) social validation and treatment fidelity measures; and (e) methodological limitations. Findings allowed us to provide recommendations for future research and practice.

Limited social interaction typically occurs between high school students with autism and their general education peers unless programming is introduced to promote interaction. However, few published social interaction interventions have been conducted among high school students with autism and their general education classmates. Such studies typically have involved considerable researcher assistance in arranging and supporting opportunities for interaction. This study represents a departure from previous interventions by teaching general education students a strategy to prompt themselves to increase their interactions with classmates with autism. Three general education high school students were taught to set interaction goals and monitor their interactions with a peer with autism in their classes. The goal-setting package was associated with increased social interaction among participating students. Based on findings, recommendations are provided for future research and practice.

The authors compared involvement in educational planning and use of self-determination strategies reported by two groups of students attending a high-poverty, predominately Black high school: 19 students with severe intellectual disabilities and 20 general education seniors who were identified as successful. Findings revealed that special education students participated in few activities (e.g., general or career education classes, transition activities, or employment) on a daily basis outside their self-contained special education classes. Special education students were significantly less likely than their general education peers to report involvement in educational planning activities or use of self-determination strategies. Although successful general education peers did take an active and self-determined role in their high school education, they represented only 20 of 114 members of their graduating senior class. Findings are discussed in relation to increasing efforts to promote self-determination and resilience among students with severe intellectual disabilities and their general education peers who are attending high-poverty high schools.