PEERS® for Preschoolers preliminary outcomes and predictors of treatment response.
Ligia Antezana, Jordan Albright, Angela Scarpa and 3 others
PMID 36103076WHAT IT FOUND
Most children showed improved social skills after a caregiver-mediated group intervention, but gains were not sustained for half at follow-up.
Fewer showed reduced behavioral difficulties, and those gains generally disappeared. The study lacked a control group, so maturation cannot be ruled out.
Key findings
01Sixty percent of children demonstrated improvement in social skills at post-treatment, but this dropped to 53.85% at follow-up.
02Only one-third of children showed reduced behavioral difficulties at post-treatment, and this fell to 7.69% at follow-up.
03Lower pre-treatment social communication difficulties predicted greater post-treatment social skills, but this link did not hold at follow-up.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study had no control or waitlist group, making it impossible to distinguish treatment effects from normal developmental maturation. The sample size was small (n=22 completers), limiting the ability to detect smaller effects. Outcomes relied entirely on caregiver report, which may be biased by their active involvement in the coaching component. Attrition was 14.81%, and missing data required imputation. The sample was primarily White, limiting generalizability. Group frequency varied (once vs. twice weekly), though total hours were consistent.
Declared interests
E.A.L. (likely Dr. Elizabeth A. Laugeson, developer of PEERS) receives royalties from Routledge Publishing. No other specific financial conflicts or sponsorships were declared in the text provided.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the 60% improvement rate as evidence of efficacy. Without a control group, this improvement may simply reflect the natural social development of children aged 4-7 years during the study period.