SOCIAL PLAY SKILL ENHANCEMENT OF CHILDREN WITH
AUTISM USING PEERS AND SIBLINGS AS THERAPISTS
JENNIFER D. BASS AND JAMES A. MULICK
Helping Hands Center for Special Needs and Columbus Children’s Hospital
Peer-mediated approaches represent the largest and most empirically supported type of social
intervention for children with autism. In this article, we discuss peer-initiation strategies, the
peer-mediated intervention that has been most used to teach typically developing peers or siblings
to improve the social play skills of children with autism. Also discussed are additional
intervention strategies that have preliminary research support including: integrated play groups,
peer buddy systems, and group oriented contingencies. Practical information regarding how to
apply peer-initiation strategies and peer buddy systems in the school setting is also
provided.