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Can We Play Together? A Closer Look at the Peers of a Peer-Mediated Intervention to Improve Play in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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Abstract

Peer-mediated interventions (PMIs) are often used to support children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to develop social skills. However, more investigation is needed to better understand the role of peers as both intervention recipients and models. Sixty-five typically developing peers who participated in a PMI for children with ASD were investigated using a randomised control trial. Play sessions of the dyads were scored using the Test of Playfulness. Results showed a significant moderate intervention effect for the peers from pre- to post-intervention; outcomes for children with ASD were not influenced by peer characteristics; and, the children demonstrated a similar pattern of play interaction. Implications for practice are discussed.

Clinical Trials Registry Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, https://www.anzctr.org.au/ (ACTRN12615000008527; Universal Trial Number: U1111-1165-2708).

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Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge the School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work, Curtin University, who kindly donated the costs involved with installation of the camera equipment and creating “The Ultimate Guide to Play” DVD. The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship in supporting this research. The authors would also like to acknowledge Dr Richard Parsons for his assistance with the statistical analysis and Dr Lauren Parsons for her assistance with administering the intervention and data collection.

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Author notes

  1. Reinie Cordier

    Present address: School Department of Special Needs Education, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Occupational Therapy, Speech Pathology and Social Work, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia

    Cally Kent & Reinie Cordier

  2. School of Allied Health, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Annette Joosten

  3. Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Sarah Wilkes-Gillan & Anita Bundy

  4. Department of Occupational Therapy, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, USA

    Anita Bundy

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  1. Cally Kent
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  2. Reinie Cordier
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  4. Sarah Wilkes-Gillan
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  5. Anita Bundy
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Contributions

The authors of this manuscripts affirm that they made a significant contribution to the conception, design, analysis, or interpretation of data; participated in drafting the manuscript or reviewing and/or revising it for intellectual content; approved the final version of the manuscript; agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved. CK conceived of the study and participated in all stages of the study, data collection, analysis and drafting the manuscript; RC participated in all stages of the study including design, analysis, interpreting results and helped to draft the manuscript; AJ participated in all stages of the study including design, interpreting results and helped to draft the manuscript; SWG participated in its design, interpretation of results and helped to draft the manuscript; AB participated in the design, interpretation of results and helped to draft the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Cally Kent.

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Kent, C., Cordier, R., Joosten, A. et al. Can We Play Together? A Closer Look at the Peers of a Peer-Mediated Intervention to Improve Play in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 50, 2860–2873 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04387-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04387-6

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