Table 1.

Demographic characteristics, engagement, and peer interaction behaviors for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their matched peers.

Demographics	Matched Peers (n = 51)	Children with ASD (n = 51)	Cohen’s d
	Mean (SD)	Mean (SD)
Male: n (%)	31 (60%)	42 (82%)
Age	8.06 (1.54)	8.12 (1.58)
Social network centrality			0.22a
Isolate	2 (4%)	9 (18%)
Peripheral	12 (24%)	22 (45%)
Secondary	22 (44%)	15 (31%)
Nuclear	14 (28%)	3 (6%)
Stanford–Binet IQb	–	86.88 (12.61)
ADOS
Social affect	–	9.80 (3.99)
Restricted and repetitive behavior	–	2.90 (1.76)
Severity score	–	7.14 (2.16)
Playground Observation of Peer Engagement
Solitary	8.89% (15%)	29.6% (27.31%)	0.94
Joint engagement	71.69% (27.70%)	42.17% (29.09%)	1.04
Peer interaction behavior
Successful initiations rate	0.69 (0.53)	0.41 (0.38)	0.61
Total initiations rate	0.73 (0.53)	0.50 (0.40)	0.49
% of successful initiation	0.94 (0.11)	0.75 (0.23)	1.07
Positive response rate	0.63 (0.46)	0.36 (0.33)	0.66
Total response rate	0.68 (0.46)	0.42 (0.36)	0.62
% of positive response	0.91 (0.15)	0.82 (0.19)	0.51

SD: standard deviation; ADOS: Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule.

^aCramer’s V.

^bIQ was not measured for the matched sample.