Increasing requests by adults with developmental disabilities using incidental teaching by peers.

Six adults with intellectual disability or autism lived in the same group home. Staff taught the housemates to prompt each other during normal routines like snack time.

The training took 30 minutes. Staff showed one resident how to wait for a pause, then ask, "What do you want?" If the partner made any clear request, the helper handed over the item.

Researchers counted how often each adult asked for things before, during, and after this peer teaching phase.

Every adult doubled or tripled their requests once housemates started prompting. Gains stayed high even after staff stopped coaching.

Incidental teaching by peers worked as well as adult-led programs, but it ran itself during daily life.

Honig et al. (1988) already showed peer models teach autistic kids new words. Farmer-Dougan (1994) moves that idea to adults and lets peers do the teaching instead of just modeling.

Nevin et al. (2005) used food deprivation to make children ask peers for snacks. Farmer-Dougan (1994) skipped deprivation and still got more requests, showing the routine itself can be the cue.

Landry et al. (1989) combined matrix training with peer modeling and saw huge generalization. Farmer-Dougan (1994) kept it simpler—just wait, prompt, and reinforce—and still got lasting gains.

You can turn any shared activity—setting the table, choosing TV shows—into peer teaching. Train one resident to pause and prompt, then let the interaction run. No extra staff time is needed after the first lesson, and the requesting keeps going. Try it Monday morning: pick a favorite communal item, teach one housemate to ask, "What do you want?" and watch the words grow.