Avoiding the "brick wall of awkward": Perspectives of youth with autism spectrum disorder on social-focused intervention practices.
Teens with autism say peer-led, hobby-based social training beats adult-run lessons.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Bottema-Beutel et al. (2016) asked teens with autism what they think about social-skills programs.
They ran small group chats and one-on-one talks. Students shared what feels helpful, awkward, or useless.
What they found
Teens like it when peers, not adults, run the show.
They want family on board and lessons baked into real hobbies, not sit-and-listen classes.
Too much adult talk feels like a “brick wall of awkward.”
How this fits with other research
Preschool studies love adult modeling. Watkins et al. (2019) showed grown-ups prompting play boosts peer bids for little kids.
The teens in Kristen’s study say the same style feels pushy and fake. Same diagnosis, different age—so the clash is about timing, not truth.
Thompson-Hodgetts et al. (2024) gave peers a five-minute script about autism. Campers then played together far more. This backs the teens’ call: let classmates lead.
Aal Ismail et al. (2022) found social-initiation tactics work in grade school. Kristen adds the teen voice: keep the tactics, drop the kid gloves.
Why it matters
If you run social groups for middle or high schoolers, flip the script. Train typical peers first. Let them model, invite, and share activities. Step back, watch, and only coach in private. You will honor both the evidence and the students’ own words.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Many youth with autism spectrum disorder participate in school-based, peer-mediated intervention programs designed to improve their social experiences. However, there is little research discerning how these youth view intervention practices currently represented in the literature, information which could improve the social validity of intervention programming. In this mixed-methods study, we interviewed 33 youth with autism spectrum disorder about seven social-focused, peer-mediated intervention components. We asked participants to rate the favorability of each component to determine their degree of liking. Subsequently, we asked participants to give a rationale for their rating, in order to explore influencing factors. Chi-square tests indicated that high ratings were most prevalent for recruiting peers and family involvement and medium ratings were most prevalent for meeting with peers. Analyses of variance also indicated that preferences in the specific format intervention components were delivered. Several themes emerged from our qualitative analysis of open-ended responses, including the ramifications of adults in adolescent social life, the advantages of learning through shared activities with peers, and the effects of disclosing disability status. Our findings will offer guidance for researchers and practitioners interested in individualizing interventions to reflect student preferences. Furthermore, we document areas of concern for youth with autism spectrum disorder as they access school-based interventions.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2016 · doi:10.1177/1362361315574888