Feed the hungry bee: using positive peer reports to improve social interactions and acceptance of a socially rejected girl in residential care.

Researchers worked with one girl who lived in a group home. Other kids had pushed her out and would not play with her.

Each day the class earned points when any student said one nice thing the girl had done. They said it out loud so everyone heard.

Mean comments almost stopped. Nice comments jumped above 70%.

The other kids started picking her for games. Their written ratings of her moved from reject to accept.

Lancioni et al. (2000) ran the same plan with four teens in the same type of home. The gains repeated, showing the trick works across ages.

Barthelemy et al. (1989) and Christopher et al. (1991) used peer helpers instead of peer reports. Both raised recess play, but the gains took longer and stayed only if helpers kept working. Public praise gives faster, self-running change.

Rodríguez-Medina et al. (2016) later used peer coaches with a student with autism. Again, peer power lifted social ties, proving the idea reaches new groups.

You can flip an outcast into a classmate in under two weeks. Pick one rejected child. Each day, let any student earn a point for saying one kind act they saw. Read the praise aloud. Keep it short, keep it daily, and watch the room re-draw its social map.