Peer-Mediated Intervention: Enhancing the Social Conversational Skills of Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder

High school can be a lonely place for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), who although may have acquired spoken language, often struggle with language use during social conversation. Conversation takes on a central role in high school social interactions, yet there are few resources available for teachers on how to teach conversation skills and facilitate meaningful conversations with peers. In this paper, we offer explicit guidelines for implementing a peer-mediated intervention (PMI) for improving the conversational skills of high school students with ASD, based on extant literature and our own experience implementing PMIs in high school settings. Our model includes both peer and focus student training, while emphasizing peers as the primary interventionists for supporting new conversational skills in natural settings.