Increasing Social Interaction Between General Education High School Students and Their Peers with Mental Retardation

We used a multiple-baseline design across participants to assess the effects of a verbal directive on the social interactions of general education high school students enrolled in a peer buddy program and their peers with mental retardation. General education students were asked to interact as friends with their peers while they engaged in leisure activities. Delivery of the directive was associated with increases in occurrence of social interaction, improvement in quality and reciprocity of interaction, and increases in range of communication behaviors performed by students with mental retardation. In addition, students discussed a greater variety of conversational topics. Findings are discussed with respect to strategies for increasing social interaction among high school students.