Effective Peer-Mediated Strategies for Improving the Conversational Skills of Adolescents With Autism

Abstract

Deficits in social-communication skills can leave high school students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) socially marginalized where conversation is the primary medium for social interaction. Interventions are needed to improve conversational skills and facilitate interactions with peers while students with ASD are still in school, yet few research-based strategies exist for high school settings. In this article, we describe three peer-mediated conversational strategies documented to be effective through our research: strategies to (a) support overall conversational engagement, (b) increase initiations to start conversations, and (c) increase follow-up questions to sustain conversations. The peer-mediated strategies are combined with teaching students with ASD to use visual supports to strengthen intervention effectiveness. We highlight methods for peer training, outcomes of our research, and implications for speech-language pathologists (SLPs).