Date Presented 03/22/24
This poster will describe the recent ten-year evidence of peer-mediated intervention (PMI) in improving social skills for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) under the age of eighteen.
Primary Author and Speaker: Hsin-Tung Hung
IMPORTANCE: Peer-mediated intervention (PMI) is recently highlighted to help children with ASD acquire social skills by teaching typically developing peers to support children with ASD. It is important to examine the effectiveness of PMI in improving social skills of children with ASD.
OBJECTIVE: To examine the effectiveness of PMI in improving social skills for children and adolescents with ASD under the age of 18 in the last 10 years.
DATA SOURCES: Three databases, including PubMed, CINAHL, and PsycINFO, were searched from 2013 to 2023.
STUDY SELECTION AND DATA COLLECTION: Studies were included if they were experimental research studies about the use of PMI in children with ASD under the age of 18. In addition, studies had to include at least one outcome measure assessing social skills or social competence.
FINDINGS: 416 articles were screened. From them, 21 met the inclusion criteria and were fully reviewed. The author extracted data related to participants’ and peers’ characteristics, research design, description of the intervention, context/setting, outcome measures, and results. The studies provided moderate strength of evidence in improving social skills for children with ASD through the use of PMI.
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Occupational therapists addressing the difficulties of social skills for children with ASD should use PMI approach; however, recognize that studies only provide moderate strength of evidence. More randomized controlled trials are needed to investigate the efficacy of PMI in improving the social skills of children with ASD.
WHAT THIS ARTICLE ADDS: This systematic review is an update of a review written by Watkins et al. (2015) by including studies that were published in the recent 10 years and were utilized experimental research design. Furthermore, this systematic review does not limit the intervention conducted only in educational settings but also in clinics, summer camps, and home settings.
References
Tanner, K., Hand, B. N., O’Toole, G., & Lane, A. E. (2015). Effectiveness of interventions to improve social participation, play, leisure, and restricted and repetitive behaviors in people with autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 69(5), 6905180010p1–6905180010p12. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2015.017806
Watkins, L., O’Reilly, M., Kuhn, M., Gevarter, C., Lancioni, G. E., Sigafoos, J., & Lang, R. (2015). A review of peer-mediated social interaction interventions for students with autism in inclusive settings. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 45(4), 1070–1083. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2264-x
