THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PEER TRAINING TO INCREASE COMMUNICATIVE RESPONSES BY PEERS WITH DISABILITIES

Abstract

Individuals with disabilities often have social and communication deficits which impact their development of social relationships. Therefore, individuals with disabilities need additional supports and interventions to gain appropriate social and communication skills. Research demonstrates that peer-mediated interventions are an effective way to help increase social interactions between students with disabilities and students without disabilities. There has been research to support that peers can successfully be taught how to use AAC devices and how to initiate and respond to peers with disabilities. Some of the positive effects of peer-mediated intervention include an increase in social communication skills, inclusion, and increased use of communication devices. The S’MoRRES© strategy was developed as a tool to help teach and supports peers as they learn to communicate with individuals with disabilities. The investigator trained typical peers how to create opportunities for communicative interactions with their peers with disabilities, using S’MoRRES© as a guide. The dependent variables of the study were peer fidelity implementing the communication strategies and the target student responses. There were two students with disabilities and six peers from general education population. All six peers were able to implement the communication strategies with fidelity and the number of target student responses increased. The results suggest that peers can successfully be taught and implement strategies to communicate with individuals with disabilities