3. Major Components of Learning Deficit:  Difficulty understanding thoughts & feelings of others  Difficulty perceiving and understanding emotions  Limited ability to empathize  Poor communication skills

4.  Peer Mediation  Active Learning  Practice Key to Success  Implementation in a Natural, Supportive Environment

5. Children with autism spectrum disorders would show improvement in social-emotional skills from participating in a peer-mediated musical theatrical program.

6.  Pretest – Posttest Design  Evaluated changes in 3 neuropsychological measures: ◦ NEPSY Memory of Faces ◦ NEPSY Affect Recognition ◦ NEPSY Theory of Mind

7.  8 Children (7 boys, 1 girl)  Age Range: 6-17 (M = 13.86, SD = 3.49)  IQ Score Range: 62 – 102 (M = 82.36. SD = 16.44)

8.  Autistic children paired with normally developing peer actors  Role of peer actors: ◦ Serve as peer models & co-stars in a musical performance ◦ Perform peer’s role for video modeling

9. Rehearsals  3 months  Rehearsal schedule increased gradually from 1 day to 4 a week  Held in supportive environment

10. Pre mean (SD)Post mean (SD)t-scorep-value Memory of Faces6.88 (4.39)9.00 (2.88)-2.610.034 Affect Recognition15.29 (9.44)19.00 (6.63)-1.220.304 Theory of Mind13.14 (6.89)15.86 (6.51)-2.730.034

11.  2 of the 3 measures produced statistically significant results: ◦ Memory of Faces [t(7) = -2.62, p = 0.034] ◦ Theory of Mind [t(7) = -2.73, p = 0.034]  Peer actors gained increased empathy with carryover effect

12. Need More Robust Follow Up Study  Larger, less homogenous sample required  Randomized sample design with control group  Participants need to stop other interventions