Peer Intervention

Description of the Strategy

Clinicians have increasingly recognized the potential of peers as effective agents of behavioral change in children. A considerable body of research conducted over the past three decades has convincingly demonstrated that the peer group exerts strong influences on the acquisition and refinement of a wide range of skills, most notably social skills and academic competencies. Given their important role as teachers across a wide range of skills and settings, peers are a natural choice for treatment agents and can be equally or more effective than adults. Peer intervention strategies focus on using children's interactions with age mates as a means of teaching new skills through modeling, providing opportunities for skill usage, and improving upon already established competencies. Targets have ...