Effects of peer social initiations on the behavior of withdrawn preschool children.
Train two friendly preschoolers to invite shy classmates to play—social bids rise fast with no adult prompts needed.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The researchers asked: what happens if we teach outgoing preschoolers to walk up to shy classmates and invite them to play?
They worked with six withdrawn children in a daycare. They used an ABAB reversal design. First they watched baseline play. Then they trained three typical peers to share toys, give compliments, and ask the target kids to join games. They removed the training, then brought it back.
Sessions happened during free-play time. Adults stayed in the room but did not prompt.
What they found
Five of the six quiet children quickly gave more toys, smiles, and friendly words when peers approached them. Their own unprompted invitations to play also rose. When peer training stopped, social acts dropped. When training returned, the gains came back.
The pattern showed the peer initiations caused the change, not just maturation.
How this fits with other research
Castells et al. (1979) ran almost the same reversal study two years later with autistic preschoolers and saw the same jump in positive social acts. This replication says the trick works even when withdrawal is part of a larger disability.
Laermans et al. (2025) now supersedes the original. Their 2025 teacher-run Stay Play Talk package still uses peer initiators, but adds brief teacher praise and visual cues. They got larger gains that lasted after adults stepped back. If you can train staff, the newer package is the stronger choice.
Fingeret et al. (1985) layered teacher prompts and token reinforcement on top of peer initiations. Social play rose higher, yet the gains disappeared whenever teacher help stopped. The 1977 study therefore remains the clean proof that peer power alone is enough to start change, even if extra supports can scale it up.
Why it matters
You do not need fancy equipment or long adult drills to pull withdrawn preschoolers into the group. Pick two or three sociable classmates, teach them to share, invite, and compliment, then let them loose during free play. Watch for a quick rise in mutual smiles, toy offers, and child-led invitations. If the target child slips, retrain the peers and rerun the cycle. This low-cost move is perfect for inclusive daycare rooms, Head Start centers, or any setting where staff time is tight but typical peers are plentiful.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Social approach to peers was evaluated as an intervention for isolate preschoolers. During baseline, confederate peers made few social approaches to the target subjects. Confederates greatly increased their rate of social approaches during the first intervention, decreased social approaches during a second baseline, and increased social approaches again in a second intervention phase. Increases in confederate social initiations immediately increased the frequency of subjects' positive social behavior. Additionally, five of six subjects showed an increase in their own positive social initiations during intervention periods. The results suggest that: (a) peers may be programmed to increase the positive social behaviors of their isolate classmates, and (b) remediating social deficits requires assessment and intervention specifically tailored to the individual child.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1977 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1977.10-289