Our Goal: Helping Children Engage with Peers at School
Remaking Recess is an evidence-based psychosocial intervention designed to help children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) engage with peers at school. It was developed by the Autism Intervention Research Network on Behavioral Health (AIR-B), a group of autism researchers from around the country.
The intervention can take place at school during recess and break-times when children have the most opportunities to interact socially with their peers. Trained interventionists work with school staff members to employ strategies that can increase the quantity and quality of peer engagement. The teaching staff and other school personnel learn to become more aware of children's levels of peer engagement and to provide individualized and group level support as needed.
Remaking Recess Team
Mark Kretzmann, PhD
Mark Kretzmann, PhD created Remaking Recess at UCLA's Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. He has been working with children, families and schools to improve outcomes for children with special needs and their peers for decades.
Connie Kasari, PhD
Connie Kasari, PhD is a professor at UCLA in Human Development and Psychology and also Psychiatry. A leader in the world of autism research and treatment, Connie has published extensively on child development, psychology, psychiatry and special education. She is well known for her work developing interventions to help children with ASD improve socially by targeting language, joint attention, and symbolic play. Connie is the lead investigator for the AIR-B Network which is concluding a large-scale randomized controlled trial of the Remaking Recess intervention and founder of the Kasari Lab.
Jill Locke, PhD
Jill Locke, PhD is a research assistant professor in Speech and Hearing Sciences at the University of Washington and University of Washington Autism Center. Instrumental in the testing of Remaking Recess, Jill has published numerous articles about children with autism and their school experiences. She is currently focused on research that reveals crucial targets for school based interventions and issues surrounding the implementation and sustainment of evidence-based practices.
Steven Kapp, PHD
Steven Kapp. PhD is a researcher and an advocate for people who are developing atypically. He's currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Exeter in England, where he studies how conceptions of autism, neurodiversity, and support associate with identity, lived experiences, and quality of life. Steven provides consultation on a wide variety of issues related to autism, psychology, and development. He has significantly contributed to the definition of ASD in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and published in diverse fields such as anthropology, disability studies, and neuroscience.
This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number UA3 MC 11055. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.