Peer-Mediated Interventions: a Practical Guide to Utilizing Students as Change Agents

Student interventionists have been utilized as change agents in a variety of contexts to improve the academic, social, and communicative behaviors of target students. A strong literature base supports the use of peers in academic interventions such as peer tutoring, as well as in behavioral interventions such as peer-mediated Check-In/Check-Out, peer modeling, and social skill groups with peer interventionists. Prior to implementation, peer tutoring, modeling, and management interventions may require a significant amount of time and/or resources on the part of school staff to train student interventionists and make a plan to monitor intervention effectiveness. As such, the current paper discusses implementation issues surrounding peer-mediated interventions and provides recommendations for deciding whether a peer-mediated intervention is appropriate, selecting and training target students, and monitoring and troubleshooting intervention effectiveness.