Brief Report: Improving Social Outcomes for Students with Autism at Recess Through Peer-Mediated Pivotal Response Training.

Stewart et al. (2018) ran a school RCT with 60 autistic students aged 6-11. Half got recess PRT right away. The rest waited six weeks.

Teachers first trained four typical classmates per student. Kids learned to give clear choices, model play, and wait for responses. Training took two hours.

Peer coaches tripled social initiations and doubled sustained play. Gains were large and visible by week two.

Wait-list kids stayed flat. After they got the same training, their numbers jumped too.

Conant et al. (1984) showed the same trick works with simple prompting. Their single-case design got the same big gains, but E et al. proved it in a randomized trial.

Bradshaw et al. (2017) used parents instead of peers. Toddlers at home gained social motivation. E et al. moved the agent to classmates and the setting to recess, yet PRT still delivered.

Shire et al. (2020) blended peers into JASPER for toddlers. Both studies show peer presence boosts engagement, but E et al. used older kids and a stricter RCT design.

You can train recess aides or peer buddies in one afternoon. Two hours of coaching gives classmates the tools to run PRT on the spot. Social gains show up fast and need no extra staff once running. If you serve elementary students with ASD, add peer-mediated PRT to your recess toolbox.