Teaching preschool age autistic children to make spontaneous initiations to peers using priming.
A quick feel-good warm-up doubled how often two preschoolers with autism started play with classmates.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Two preschool boys with autism joined a regular class.
Before each play period the teacher ran a 10-minute priming session.
The session had easy tasks and lots of praise.
Then typical peers were taught to respond if a child started an interaction.
What they found
Both boys began to walk up to peers on their own.
Spontaneous initiations doubled after priming was added.
The gains stayed when priming stopped.
How this fits with other research
Conant et al. (1984) first showed that classmates can prompt autistic children to start play.
Kirkpatrick-Steger et al. (1996) kept the peer part and simply added a feel-good warm-up first.
Harper et al. (2008) and Stewart et al. (2018) later moved the same idea to recess with PRT instead of priming.
Bradshaw et al. (2017) and Bozkus-Genc et al. (2024) swapped peers for parents and still saw more initiations, proving the warm-up concept works at home too.
Why it matters
You can copy the 10-minute priming routine tomorrow.
Pick easy tasks the child already likes, give plenty of praise, then release to peers.
No extra staff or gear is needed and the boost in spontaneous social starts shows up right away.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Slot a 10-minute easy-task, high-praise priming block right before free-play and prompt peers to respond when the child approaches.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Children with autism rarely initiate social interactions with their peers. Currently available interventions have not increased autistic children' spontaneous initiations in natural settings without extensive teacher involvement. A "priming" strategy consisting of a low demand, high reinforcement session prior to the regular school activity was used to increase the spontaneous social initiations of 2 preschool age autistic boys to typically developing peers in a regular preschool classroom. Peers were also trained to independently respond to initiations. Implications for developing practical ways to improve autistic children's social functioning in regular school settings are discussed.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 1996 · doi:10.1007/BF02172826