2) Increase how often children with ASD interact with regularly developing classmates & peers.

3) Reduce support required from teachers and other adults.

4) Extend peer support with children with ASD to other aspects and activities in the classroom.

5) Encourage support from peers for children with ASD.

a) Responding

b) Engagement

c) Initiations

2) Enhance academic performances.

3) Generate interpersonal and personal-social development.

1) Be liked by their peers.

2) Have good social, language, and play-making abilities.

3) Have a good rapport with the targeted child with ASD.

4) Easily take directions from adults.

5) Be able to stay on task for at least 10 minutes.

6) Be willing (and hopefully wanting) to participate.

7) Have good attendance record at school.

The process begins by helping the peer understand and appreciate the differences of the child with ASD. Continues by explaining the similarities and differences of children with ASD. This first phase also includes explaining how he/she is going to help the child with ASD (also known as the focal child).

The process continues with teaching the peers strategies one at a time. These training sessions are daily and take place four or five times to learn initiation techniques.

Prompts and reinforcements are used to teach peers strategies, and social initiation is taught to the peer by the teacher.

After all of these steps, the peer is implemented into the structured play setting.

• Play session should be part of the schedule and at the same time every day.

• 15 minute play sessions including transitions times.

Consistent time and place for child with ASD so it is predictable.

2. Material selection Limit items that contain:

a. Contain a specific theme for each play session (e.g., blocks, prop box)

b. Include an element of socio-dramatic play (e.g, role playing, acting out scripts)

c. May require assistance in operating

d. Are not normally available in the classroom.

3. Identification of responsible staff

One staff member in the classroom should be consistently responsible for running and supervising play. This adult will:

a. train peers,

b. implement the learning activities,

c. observe child progress.

4. The use of prompts and reinforcement This is essential to the success of peer initiation training.

a. Observe children to identify non-interaction

b. Provide a prompt to either focal child or peer to begin an interaction or respond an intitiation.

• Sand table
• Birthday party prop box
• Doll house and people
• Building a road; cars and trucks
• Car garage
• Doctor
• Farm animals and blocks
• Grocery store
• Play-doh
• Puppet show
• Puzzles
• Zoo animals (Odom et al., 1993; Zhang & Wheeler, 2011).

1. Embedded Intervention

Instruction is provided within child-imitated, naturalistic, and contextualized interactions.

2. Class wide peer buddy system

This increases the number of peers who interact with the focal child with this approach; children in the class have different play partners each day. A chart can be created that displays pairs of children's names printed on individual cards. Each day, the cards are systematically rotated so that each child has the opportunity to buddy with a different peer. At "buddy time," children check the chart and find their name as well as the name of their buddy. During free play, children play with their buddies. Teachers prompt interactions as needed duringthis time.