A Systematic Review of Peer-Mediated Interventions for Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Inclusive Settings

Effects of a Multicomponent Peer Mediated Intervention on Social Communication of Preschoolers With Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Generalization across stimuli was observed for social communication exchanges for two dyads, and unscripted social initiations were observed for two children with ASD. Although generalization is measured infrequently in PMI (Goldstein et al, 2014; Gunning et al, 2018), our findings are similar to recent studies that have found generalization effects to be mixed within the PMI literature (Whalon et al, 2015).…”

“…The study employed two measures of social validity that are not often employed: measuring typical peers’ acceptability ratings of the PMI intervention over time and collecting normative comparison data from typically developing peer dyads during play with the same toys. A recent PMI literature review noted only 28% of single-case experimental design and group design studies in their review assessed social validity, and none of the studies assessed social validity of peers (Gunning et al, 2018). Peers in this study provided positive ratings for several intervention features: leaving their classroom for training, watching videos, and playing with their peer with ASD.…”

“…Typically developing peers were nominated for this study by their teachers as meeting the following criteria based on previous PMI research (Gunning et al, 2018): (a) being well-liked by typical peers, (b) being a positive social partner with the focal child, (c) being generally compliant with adult directives, (d) ability to attend to a task or activity for at least 10 min, (e) willingness to participate, and (f) ability to attend school on a regular basis. Information regarding typically developing peers was gathered during informal interviews with their teachers.…”

“…To achieve reciprocal social communication, researchers have used multicomponent interventions to teach increased initiations and responses by both groups of children (Gunning et al, 2018). Despite positive outcomes in some social contexts, there are aspects of multicomponent interventions that have yet to be investigated.…”

A Systematic Review of Family-Mediated Social Communication Interventions for Young Children with Autism

“…They were found to demonstrate academic gains, increased sensitivity to others, higher self-confidence, and expanded peer networks after participating as peer mediators for individuals with ASD (Carter et al, 2008 ). Criteria for successful peer candidates include attending the same school as the child with ASD, having developmentally appropriate cognitive and language abilities, a history of compliance, and social competence and enthusiasm (Gunning et al, 2019a ).…”