Peer to Peer is the largest and most empirically supported type of intervention for students with ASD

(Autistic Spectrum Disorder).​

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      Peer to Peer support programs can change the culture of a building, district and community, by bringing together regular education students and special education (ASD) students in a generalized setting where social skills are modeled through team building, academic and socialization activities. 

    Peer-to-Peer meets once a month during 4th hour for team building skills in the Aux gym. 
The schedule of activities is posted outside of room 234. All members of Peer-to-Peer communicate through Remind101.

Staff is emailed the list of students that will be participating in Peer-to-Peer. All homework missed will be the students’ responsibility to make up.

The Cousino Peer-to-Peer group has presented to administrators at the Administration Building and to a board member. Three other districts in Macomb County have expressed a desire to learn more about Peer-to-Peer in order to implement the program in their district.  One district sent four representatives to observe and interview mentors and mentees. All of the Cousino Peer-to-Peer material on how to implement the program was shared with the districts.

The regular education student gains as well by understanding the many challenges ASD students face, they enhance their leadership, listening and empathy skills.
Students diagnosed with autism do not easily relate to the thoughts and concerns of their peers—a basic prerequisite for friendship.
The complex variety of nuanced forms of nonverbal and spoken communication—such as body language, tone of voice, sarcasm, and the use of facial gestures—are misinterpreted or go unnoticed.
Students with ASD struggle to organize and interpret incoming sensoryinformation in meaningful ways and lack the natural ability to “modulate” (alter the intensity) or filter out unwanted sound, light, touch, and taste.
Developing friendships is difficult for students with ASD. 
Students struggle to understand the communicative intent of others.
Student's sense that “unpredictable things happen that I don’t understand” causes them to feel anxious and helpless.
Students with ASD lack the ability to read and understand social cues. 
The unwelcome discomfort from that interference can cause anxiety. In an effort to explain what it feels like, Grandin (2000) wrote,
“My hearing is like a sound amplifier set on maximum loudness. My ears are like a microphone that picks up and amplifies sound.”
Some students are under-responsive to incoming sensory input and have an almost insatiable desire to seek more. These sensory seekers get relief through a variety of means, such as applying deep pressure to the chest and neck area or by rubbing a small object between their thumb and index finger. Like other challenges that students with ASD experience, sensory challenges are highly individual.
Academically, students with autism vary widely in their learning capabilities and needs, just like their non disabled peers.
Many also experience problems with fine motor control and, for example, find handwriting difficult.
Common challenges to learning include difficulty understanding abstract concepts, maintaining attention and concentration, following lengthy verbal directions, and adjusting to changes in routines and rules.