Role of Peers

Theater-based intervention can be done with the support of peers or without peers!

With Peers

Peers can offer natural, developmentally appropriate social models
Have been shown to increase motivation and engagement by promoting authentic interactions
Promotes reciprocal communication, turn-taking, and collaboration
Can create and support a pathway to generalize skills (Corbett et al., 2014)
Builds empathy and leadership for typically developing peers (Reading et al., 2015)

How to Use Peers:

Peer Modeling to demonstrate target behaviors with age-matched peers
Partner Activities to offer smaller, direct interactions
Group Improvisation to work on social collaboration
Shared Roles to scaffold cues and emotional expressions
Performance Teams to encourage leadership and inclusion within groups of students working toward a shared goal of putting on a show. Teams aren't just for sports!

When Using Peers:

Brief trainings and instructions for supporting communication, modeling appropriate behavior, and prompting in a naturalistic way should be conducted to support the peers.

Without Peers

Theater-based intervention is still successful without peers, instead focusing on:

Adult modeling from clinicians or teachers
Video modeling to show facial expressions, tones, and other aspects of communication (Corbett et al., 2010)
Puppetry or symbolic characters
Child-to-child reciprocal modeling, even in small therapy groups (da Cruz et al., 2022)
Scripted therapist role-play to demonstrate behaviors (McDonald et al., 2022)

References:

Corbett, B. A., Gunther, J. R., Comins, D., Price, J., Ryan, N., Simon, D., Schupp, C. W., & Rios, T. (2010). Brief report: Theatre as therapy for children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41(4), 505–511. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-010-1064-1

Corbett, B. A., Key, A. P., Qualls, L., Fecteau, S., Newsom, C. R., Coke, C., & Yoder, P. (2014). Improvement in social deficits in autism spectrum disorders using a theatre-based, peer-mediated intervention. Autism Research, 7(1), 4–16. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.1341

da Cruz, G. S., Deschamps, L. M., Blas, H. F., & de Oliveira, A. M. (2022). Theater activities: Contributions to pragmatic development in children’s language. CEFAC, 24(2), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.23925/2176-2724.2022v34i3e51726

McDonald, N. M., Hartmann, K., & Corbett, B. A. (2022). Performance- and theater-based interventions for supporting social cognition and social communication in autistic youth: A review and theoretical synthesis. Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 9, 295–310. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0042-1750763

Reading, J., Reading, R., Padgett, R., Pryor, S., & Edwards, J. (2015). The use of theatre to develop social and communication behaviors for students with autism. Journal of Educational Research and Practice, 5(1), 1–20. https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?params=/context/ccom_papers/article/1140

Wu, X., Lou, Y., Lin, C., & Chang, H. (2020). Early intervention for children with intellectual and developmental disability using drama therapy techniques. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 97, 103544. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104689

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