Remote PEERS® for preschoolers: A pilot parent-mediated social skills intervention for young children with social challenges over telehealth
Six weeks of online parent groups deliver PEERS® preschool social-skills training with high satisfaction and small, real-world gains.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Factor et al. (2022) moved the PEERS® preschool social-skills program online. Parents met in small Zoom groups for six weeks. They learned to coach their kids at home.
All children were 3–5 years old with autism or developmental delay. No one came to a clinic. Everything happened on screens.
What they found
Parents said the telehealth version was easy to use and they liked it. Most finished every session.
Moms and dads felt a little more confident teaching social skills. Kids used slightly more greetings and sharing at home, but gains were small.
How this fits with other research
Olsen et al. (2021) tracked the same PEERS® program delivered in person. Years later, kids still had better social talk, but behavior problems and parent stress crept back up. Factor’s online version keeps the social-skills boost while adding the ease of telehealth.
Lee et al. (2024) also taught preschool life skills through Zoom. Both studies show parents can run lessons on screen and see child gains. Factor focuses on autism; Lee used typical kids, so results widen the telehealth parent-training circle.
Ferguson et al. (2022) coached parents online in naturalistic ABA. Like Factor, they saw high parent fidelity and modest child communication jumps. Together, the papers say telehealth parent training works, but expect small, not huge, changes.
Why it matters
If you run a clinic, you can now offer PEERS® preschool groups to families who live far away or can’t leave work. Start with a six-week Zoom cycle, teach parents one skill per week, and use brief video check-ins between sessions. Keep outcome goals realistic—small boosts in greetings and turn-taking are wins.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Social differences characteristic of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental disabilities are evident in early childhood and are associated with later difficulties. Unfortunately, there is a paucity of evidence-based interventions explicitly targeting social skills development for young children, few actively integrate parents and caregivers, and even fewer have remote models. The importance of providing accessible, tailored services for families in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, prompted the creation of a parent-mediated telehealth version of Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS®) for Preschoolers (P4P), a pre-existing, evidence-based social skills intervention for children 4–6 years focused on making and keeping friends. This methodological paper documents the implementation, feasibility, and satisfaction of a novel telehealth group-based delivery of P4P. Qualitative results indicate acceptable feasibility and satisfaction. Additionally, following completion there was an increase in parental confidence in social coaching and increased use of child social skills. Future work will evaluate quantitative outcomes and comparisons between delivery methods (e.g., telehealth vs. in-person).
Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2022 · doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1008485