The Impact of Peer Education on Classroom Outcomes for Children with Tourette Syndrome

A peer-education videotape was developed for elementary school classes with a student with Tourette Syndrome, a chronic, frequently stigmatizing tic disorder. Triads consisting of a child with Tourette Syndrome, the child’s parent, and the child’s teacher were randomly assigned to either an intervention or control group. The triads completed sets of instruments three times, over five weeks. Only the intervention group received the videotape, as part of a classroom presentation between the first and second data collection times. The results indicated that the triads in both groups perceived gradual improvements in the children’s social adjustment. The intervention and control groups, however, also differed in several respects. In the intervention group, the parents reported that their children acquired more friends following the classroom presentation. The children, however, reported having fewer friends at school, less athletic competence, and worse physical appearance. The implications of the results for peer-education interventions are discussed