Reading Buddies: A Strategy to Increase Peer Interaction in Students With Autism

Abstract

Students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often challenged by social interaction and may require substantial support to interact with peers even in inclusive settings. Having adults support students with ASD during peer interactions, however, may ostracize the student from peers without disabilities. Peer-mediated strategies are needed so that students with ASD and students without disabilities can interact in a variety of activities without undue reliance on adults. A peer-mediated approach to a shared reading activity is presented in which students without disabilities and students with ASD are taught a three-step strategy to increase social interactions around a story.

Keywords

autism spectrum disorder peer-mediated intervention social interaction shared reading

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is defined as persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts, with restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Characteristics of ASD occur across a continuum from mild to severe symptoms, with each student displaying varying and unique manifestations of the disorder. Students with ASD frequently struggle to interact with others and may actively avoid social situations. As students with ASD repeatedly miss opportunities to socialize with peers, they become isolated and left on the periphery of peer activities, reducing opportunities for friendship development (Cotugno, 2009; Stichter, Randolph, Gage, & Schmidt, 2007).

Elementary schools offer frequent opportunities for students to practice social skills, such as participating with group activities in the classroom, conversing in the lunchroom, and playing on the playground. For students without disabilities, these opportunities usually lead to well-developed social skills and reciprocal friendships. Students with ASD, however, may require substantial support from adults to interact with their peers during these same activities (Boyd, Conroy, Asmus, & McKenney, 2011). Often this takes the form of a teacher or adult reminding or prompting the student with ASD what to say or do in the social situation, which may ostracize the student with ASD and diminish opportunities to develop friendships (Carter, Cushing, Clark, & Kennedy, 2005). As a result, peer-mediated strategies are needed in which students with ASD and their peers without disabilities can interact without undue reliance on adults.

Peer Mediated Interventions

Peer-mediated interventions (PMIs) teach students without disabilities ways to engage students with ASD (Odom & Strain, 1984; L. Watkins et al., 2015). Peers without disabilities model appropriate behaviors and targeted social skills, and they may also reinforce or praise the student with ASD. One unique and beneficial characteristic of PMIs is that the peer without disabilities becomes the intervention agent. As a result, students with ASD learn to respond or interact directly with the peer without disabilities rather than waiting to be prompted by an adult (L. Watkins et al., 2015).

Reading Buddies

One way to use a PMI as a means to incorporate social interaction into an academic activity is illustrated here with the Reading Buddies activity. Reading Buddies is based on shared reading (i.e., partner reading), an academic activity in which two or three students read together to practice reading and develop literacy skills (National Early Literacy Panel, 2008). Research indicates that shared reading provides students with opportunities to improve reading skills, such as fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, as well as social skills, such as turn taking and interacting with peers (Brown, 2006; Lowery, Sabis-Burns, & Anderson-Brown, 2008). Both the National Early Literacy Panel (2008) and the National Reading Panel (2000) identified shared reading (i.e., reading with others) as important to emergent literacy development in young children.

Shared or “buddy” reading has been used with students without disabilities and shown to have a positive effect on social development through the emergence of reciprocal relationships between the buddies (Lowery et al., 2008). Expanding buddy-reading activities to include both students without disabilities and students with ASD can take the form of a PMI and provide important scaffolding for the development of literacy and social skills in both groups of students. Providing opportunities to respond to peer questions or peer prompts about a shared story can be an important foundation for social development in students with ASD (Kamps et al., 2002).

The specific example of Reading Buddies given here is for early elementary students including those with ASD. As a PMI, Reading Buddies could also be used to increase social interactions in students with emotional/behavioral disorders (Kaya, Blake, & Chan, 2015) or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (D. E. Watkins & Wentzel, 2008).

Step 1: Form Buddy Groups

The teacher should first decide whether to implement the program within his or her own class or recruit another class to participate as buddies. Students are then placed in buddy groups such that each group includes not more than one student with ASD and two to three peers without disabilities, allowing for natural generalization of skills across peers, and lessening the burden on any one participant to provide all necessary support to the student with ASD (L. Watkins et al., 2015).

Step 2: Prepare Materials to Support Interaction

Only a few materials are needed for Reading Buddies, all of which are readily available in most classrooms. There should be a collection of books that are of high interest and motivating to a variety of readers. Books that can be read aloud within 3 to 5 minutes and include visually stimulating pictures work best to hold everyone’s attention. Books at a variety of reading levels will ensure that all students can participate successfully.

Visual Support

Visual supports have been shown to improve understanding in students with ASD who may have difficulty processing verbal information alone (Hume, 2013). Many other students can also benefit from the use of visual supports, such as students who are learning English as a second language (Hart, 2009). A visual support can be created using a poster board or chart paper listing each step of the intervention paired with a photograph or picture symbol (see Figure 1). As students with ASD benefit from clear explicit directions and expectations (Iovannone, Dunlap, Huber, & Kincaid, 2003), the Reading Buddies visual support is an important means to indicate exactly how to participate in the activity.

Figure 1.

Poster of three-step intervention.

Reinforcement

Preparing a system of positive reinforcement can be helpful for all students and is particularly useful to encourage active participation in the students with ASD. Reinforcement increases the likelihood that the student will use the desired behaviors again (Fettig, 2013; Newman, 2005). Research indicates that PMIs are particularly effective when typical peers are taught to prompt and reinforce students with ASD (Kamps et al., 2014; Strain & Bovey, 2011). In this example a small card (see Figure 2) for each student serves as an opportunity for students to praise each other for appropriate interactions as well as a reminder of the Reading Buddies expectations.

Figure 2.

Example of token card for reinforcement.

Step 3: Teach the Intervention and Reinforcement

Once the buddy groups are formed and the materials are prepared, teachers are ready to begin the intervention. Students are gathered in a designated area and all students are taught the steps of the intervention together by referring to the visual support while reviewing the steps aloud. Teaching the steps of the intervention to all students ensures that everyone understands the expectations of the activity and allows students with ASD to interact with multiple trained peers. Teachers should model the steps of the intervention for the students, and then role-play the steps together with the students. Explicit guidelines and directions for all members of the group are important for successful social interactions to occur (Kamps et al., 2002).

Stay With Your Buddy

The first step in the activity conveys to the students that this is an activity they are to do together. Reminding the students to stay close to their buddy helps all students to stay engaged and stick with the activity, thereby facilitating social interaction. Students with ASD who do not have extensive experience with peer activities might get distracted from the buddy group at times. Teachers should model how to stay close and engage students with questions such as “What can I do if my buddy gets distracted or wanders away from the group?” or “How can I help my buddy get back to the group if he/she gets distracted?” Teachers and students should role-play possible responses.

Read With Your Buddy

This second step conveys to the students that they are to practice their reading and listening skills with each other, and each student should have an opportunity to read or share his or her book. Teachers should inform students that they are to read with their buddy and not read by themselves. Knowing all the words of the story is not the emphasis of the intervention. Teachers should model how to hold the book when reading so that everyone in the group can see the book and engage students with questions such as “How should I read aloud so everyone in my group can see and hear the story?” or “What might be a good way for me to read my book to everyone in the group?” Teachers then call on students to role-play possible responses.

Talk With Your Buddy

The third step in the intervention is important for promoting the social interaction between the students. This step is conveyed to the students as talking about the book, sharing an idea, commenting on the story or pictures in the book, sharing what they like or dislike, or asking questions about the story or pictures. Students are encouraged to talk and ask each other questions about the book. Teachers should model for students with examples such as “I like the funny cat in this story, what do you like?” or “I see some interesting animals on this page, what do you see?” Teachers and students can role-play what it means to “talk about” and “ask questions about” the story.

Students with ASD may also benefit from the use of visual aids to support interaction around the story (Browder, Trela, & Jimenez, 2007; Lanter & Watson, 2008). One way to do this is to provide students with story manipulatives, such as plastic objects or laminated pictures of story characters and important scenes to help them talk about the story. Many children’s books have accompanying felt-board pieces that students can use to retell the story with peers. Another idea to increase initiations is to incorporate sentence starters such as “I like the _________” or “My favorite part is ________.” More proficient students may benefit from longer sentence frames to encourage reciprocity such as “I like the ____________ in this story, what did you like?” Even including a simple “my turn–your turn” visual cue can remind students to take turns talking about the story. A teacher might try giving each student several “talking tickets” and instruct them to place a ticket in a small box or envelope each time they comment or ask a question about the story. Students should be encouraged to use all of their “talking tickets” during the activity. As students become familiar with the talking strategies, visual supports for interaction can be faded, and students acquire more independence and proficiency with social interactions. See Table 1 for visual supports teachers can incorporate to help all students talk about stories.

Table 1.

Visual Supports to Help Students Talk About Stories.

Strategy	Example
Story manipulatives to help students talk about the story	Laminated pictures of main characters or scenes from story Felt cut outs of story characters (farmer, dog, cow, horse) Small plastic objects to represent story elements (mouse, cookie)
Visual cues to remind students to talk and take turns	“Let’s talk” picture icon “My turn/your turn” picture icon Talking tickets
Sentence starters to help students initiate interactions	I see _______. I like the ________. My favorite part is _________.
Advanced sentence frames to expand interactions	I liked the __________. What did you like? One thing I learned was ________. What did you learn?

Teach the Reinforcement System

In addition to teaching the steps of the intervention it is important to teach the reinforcement system that was prepared. Teachers can remind students that everyone likes to know when they are doing a good job and to be praised for a job well done. The teacher should model “You did a great job of staying with me while I was reading” or “I really liked the way you talked with me about the story” while marking the reinforcement card. Students should understand how to mark the cards and deliver praise statements to each other. At the end of each session, teachers may wish to have students redeem their card for a preferred item or activity (e.g., sticker, class ticket).

Step 4: Monitor and Collect Observational Data

Each session of Reading Buddies begins with a review of the steps of the intervention using the visual support, modeling, role-play, and reinforcement. Once students review the steps of the intervention and how to use the reinforcement system, they can begin reading. During this time, teachers monitor the activity, provide verbal feedback, and prompt students to use the steps of the intervention. For example, teachers may remind students, “What are the three things we do as Reading Buddies?” Teachers should also prompt students to use the reinforcement system. For example, teachers may say, “I see lots of students being good reading buddies—are you remembering to tell each other when you are doing a good job as a reading buddy” or “Can you show me how you tell your buddy what a great job he is doing?” Teachers can encourage the students without disabilities to assist students with ASD if needed rather than stepping into prompt the student directly.

Teachers should also collect data on target behaviors, as many students with ASD have individualized education program goals related to social interaction with peers. Reading Buddies can be an excellent opportunity to address these specific goals and improve student skills. Teachers should first define the target behavior for data collection (e.g., student will independently ask a question or comment on a story to a peer). Next it is necessary to identify what type of data will be collected, such as frequency, rate, or type of interaction (e.g., asked question, made comment). Baseline data should be collected before beginning a Reading Buddies program. Intervention data are collected once the Reading Buddies program begins. Reviewing the data at regular intervals allows the teacher to make instructional decisions based on those data, an important step in improving outcomes for students with ASD (Bellini, Benner, & Peters-Myszak, 2009). For example, if the data indicate a student has met his target for commenting to peers, the teacher may decide to focus on asking questions for that student. For another student whose data indicate she has not met her target behavior of commenting to peers, the teacher may decide to provide additional scaffolding for social interaction.

Teachers can also utilize the data to adjust environmental antecedents for improved student outcomes (Kern & Clemens, 2007). For example, the data might indicate that one group does better when seated in an area with minimal distractions so the teacher may decide to assign that group a quiet place to sit each time. Without additional interference the group members are able to attend to the activity and the student with ASD demonstrates improved social interaction. In another example the data might indicate that one group demonstrates more interaction with nonfiction books. In this case the teacher may decide to provide additional books on preferred topics of interest to the group and the student with ASD begins to increase his target behaviors.

Step 5: Generalize Skills to Novel Peers

Research indicates that students with autism engage in more interaction with familiar peers over less familiar peers and with trained peers over untrained peers (Kamps et al., 2002). Thus, having buddy groups stay together for several weeks may allow students to become accustomed to each other and develop reciprocal relationships while supporting each other with social interactions. As students become successful using the Reading Buddies strategies social interactions become more meaningful and reinforcing for everyone.

Once all groups have learned the intervention and data demonstrate consistent use of the strategy, the teacher may decide to rotate buddies, providing students with ASD the opportunity to generalize learned skills to novel peers (Iovannone et al., 2003; Koegel, Vernon, Koegel, Koegel, & Paullin, 2012). Since the program is implemented at the classwide level, rotating buddy groups within the class would not require teaching the intervention to a new group of students, yet would allow students with ASD to practice their social skills with a different set of peers.

Conclusion

Students with ASD often struggle with social interaction and may experience significant isolation even in inclusive settings if specific supports are not provided (Stichter et al., 2007). Without clear strategies in place, these students may have few opportunities to establish relationships and develop reciprocal friendships. PMIs have been effective in improving social skills in students with ASD and should be included in a variety of activities across the school day (L. Watkins et al., 2015). This article provides a peer-mediated approach to a shared reading activity termed Reading Buddies that promotes social interaction between students with ASD and peers without disabilities. Reading Buddies incorporates a three-step strategy in which all students are taught techniques to stay with, read with, and talk with the other members of their buddy group. Through the use of modeling, visual aids, and reinforcement, students are supported to use the steps of the intervention and increase socializations. Reading Buddies is presented as a technique to scaffold the social development of students with autism, but it may be beneficial to a variety of learners needing social support.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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