Promoting Social Learning at Recess for Children with ASD and Related Social Challenges
A 20-minute staff-run recess game lifts social starts and play time for elementary students with autism.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Vincent et al. (2018) tested a 20-minute recess program called FRIEND. Trained staff ran games on the playground for elementary students with autism.
They used a multiple-baseline design across kids. Social starts and back-and-forth play were counted each day.
What they found
After FRIEND started, every child with autism made more social starts and stayed in play longer. Gains showed up quickly and kept going.
The program worked in the real chaos of recess—no extra adults beyond the usual team.
How this fits with other research
Alwahbi et al. (2021) asked, “What if peers help too?” They added a simple contingency contract to peer training. Social bids jumped higher than with peer training alone. This builds on FRIEND by showing peers can add punch.
Sasson et al. (2022) went further. They paired peer buddies with short video models for kids with autism plus intellectual disability. Big play gains happened again. Together these papers say: staff-led FRIEND works, and you can boost it with peers or video.
Sasson et al. (2018) looks like a clash. Their Buddy Game also used structured recess and got positive social gains, but the kids were preschoolers, not elementary. The age gap explains the different effect sizes—no real contradiction, just younger brains.
Why it matters
You already have recess duty. Turn it into therapy minutes. Run one short, scripted game, then step back and prompt from the side. Track social starts for each child. If a child needs more, add a peer contract or 30-second video clip—two moves that now have backup data.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Pick one recess game, teach two rules, and tally each child’s social starts for five days.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
The school playground provides an ideal opportunity for social inclusion; however, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often struggle to engage in appropriate social interactions in this unstructured environment. Thus, they may spend recess time alone. The FRIEND Playground Program is a structured, play-based intervention aimed at improving social interactions of children with ASD and other social challenges during recess. The current research study employed a multiple baseline across participant design to systematically evaluate whether this intervention yields increased social engagement and initiations with peers during recess. Seven participants with ASD or other social challenges received 20 min of direct intervention from trained playground facilitators during school recess each day. Results suggest that the FRIEND Playground Program produced meaningful increases in social engagement and social initiations from baseline among participants with ASD and other social challenges.
Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2018 · doi:10.1007/s40617-017-0178-8