Effects of peer mediation on preschoolers' compliance and compliance precursors.

Beaulieu et al. (2013) worked with four preschoolers who had no diagnoses.

First they taught each child two simple skills: look up when you hear your name and answer a group call like "Eyes on me!".

After the kids mastered those cues, classmates were trained to give gentle reminders or praise when they saw the skills.

The researchers tracked how often the children followed teacher instructions before, during, and after this peer-mediation phase.

Teaching the two precursor skills boosted compliance for every child.

When peers started reminding and praising, the good results stuck around even after the adults stopped prompting.

In other words, the classmates kept the compliance going without extra teacher effort.

Charlop et al. (1992) did something very similar with autistic preschoolers. They trained peers to attend, comment, and acknowledge play behavior and saw social play jump. The peer-training engine is the same; Lauren just aimed it at compliance instead of social skills.

Dai et al. (2023) took the idea further. They used peer mediation with minimally verbal children who had autism plus intellectual disability. Their play-based package also worked, showing the tactic stretches beyond neurotypical kids.

Wilder et al. (2020) looks like a contradiction at first. They say three-step guided compliance plus rewards works better than either part alone, implying you still need adult-delivered prompts. Lauren’s team got stable compliance without any adult prompts once peers took over. The difference is population: Wilder’s kids had autism and needed stronger supports, while Lauren’s kids were typically developing and could rely on peer cues alone.

If you run an inclusive preschool or general-ed classroom, teach the whole class two quick attending responses. Then train classmates to notice and praise those responses. You can fade yourself out and still keep high compliance during group instruction. It saves adult time and builds a supportive peer culture.