| Description |
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a life-long condition that is characterized by social and communication deficits and restrictive, repetitive behaviors. As of 2014, 1 in 68 8-year-olds in the United States had been diagnosed with ASD. Since most of the literature and interventions are focused on early childhood, one approach to improving some of the challenges associated with ASD, including social and vocational issues, is peer teaching, an educational strategy that typically employs neurotypical, nondisabled students to teach skills to students with a disability. Peer teaching is associated with positive social and academic outcomes. However, most of the peer-teaching literature uses peer teachers who are typically developing or nondisabled and focuses on the deficits of the students with the disabilities. The current study was a program development and evaluation of the iSTAR peer-teaching program that utilizes experienced peer teachers with ASD (9 peer teachers ages 15-26) to instruct students with ASD in iSTAR's summer SketchUp workshop. Six major substantive themes emerged during the qualitative analysis: (a) the meaning of peer teaching, (b) peer teaching motivation, (c) competency, (d) peer teacher challenges, (e) coping, and (f) program review. Themes will be discussed in terms of their consistency with role theory and the concept of scaffolding. The study is consistent with previous findings that peer teaching is a positive teaching strategy that benefits the peer teachers as well as the learners. This study helps provide the foundation for future studies to explore individuals with ASD as peer teachers instead of being the recipients being taught by others. |
