Can We Play Together? A Closer Look at the Peers of a Peer-Mediated Intervention to Improve Play in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The team ran a randomized trial of peer-mediated play. They trained typical kids to invite and keep play going with classmates who have autism.

They then watched whether the trained peers got better at play themselves, and whether traits like shyness changed the outcome.

The trained peers became more playful. The kids with autism kept their usual play levels, no matter what the peer was like.

In short: teaching the peer helps the peer, and you don’t need to pick “perfect” friends to run the program.

Wolfberg et al. (2015) already showed peer play groups help autistic kids. The new study adds a control group and shows peers gain too.

Meyer et al. (1987) warned that less teacher talk cuts child chat. Looks like a contradiction, but they studied teacher withdrawal, not peer training. When peers lead, conversation stays natural and no skill loss occurs.

Pisman et al. (2020) proved parents can teach during play without killing fun. Cally et al. stretch the same idea to classmates: let children, not adults, steer the game.

You can stop hunting for the “ideal” peer buddy. Train any willing classmate; they will play better and your autistic learner gets steady, natural invitations. Pick a peer, teach the script, then step back and let recess do the work.