Navigating Integration into Middle School: A Peer Network Intervention
for Students with Autism

Funded by: Friends of the Life Span Institute – Discovery Award
Kathy Thiemann-Bourque, 2008-2009
Life Span Institute, University of Kansas

For children with autism, transitions across grade levels and new schools can be extremely challenging. As these children progress through the primary grades, the social competency gap with their peers widens (Prizant et al., 1997). Further, follow-up studies report bleak outcomes: poor social adjustment for 60-75% when they reach pre-adolescence or early adulthood (Nordin & Gillberg, 1998). Recent recommendations for comprehensive transition planning for students with autism include teaching appropriate peer interactions (Alberta Education, 2006). Unfortunately, intervention research that would guide us on how to facilitate school transitions successfully is sorely lacking. In particular, students transitioning from elementary to middle school have been overlooked. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of a peer network intervention on improving social interactions between students with autism and their peers, as they prepare to transition from elementary school. Peer-mediated intervention studies of middle school students with autism are scarce (Haring & Breen, 1992); however, there is evidence of effective teaching strategies for elementary students (Garrison-Harrell et al., 1997; Kamps et al., 2002). In previous research, we documented increased communication with peers (e.g., questions, gain attention, and compliments), fewer disruptive behaviors, and improved friendship ratings (Thiemann & Goldstein, 2001; 2004). Evidence-based strategies include training peers without disabilities, and directly teaching communication skills using written script training. Similar strategies will be used in this study, and also include a novel peer network approach in which the peers identify social goals, ‘hip’ social scripts, and monitor social progress. The project will consist of two single-subject research studies. In Study 1, 4 students with autism and 24 peers without disabilities (6 classmates per child) will receive the intervention in the Spring of 6th grade. In Study 2, in middle school, the same focus students and peers (if possible) will participate in the Fall of 7th grade. Specific aims of the project are to determine if (1) the intervention will increase target communication skills (e.g., to resolve conflicts, chit-chat during transitions), (2) progress is maintained across schools, and (3) peers and teachers perceive changes in children’s social competence. Long term objectives are: (1) to identify effective strategies that assist students with autism to be more fully integrated into middle school, and (2) to gain pilot data to justify an application for federal funding for a larger scale study with similar aims. Results will provide pioneering knowledge on how we can narrow the social gap between students with autism and their peers as they become adolescents.