PEERS® for Teens
Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills
The Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS® for Teens) is world-renowned for providing evidence-based social skills treatment to adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety, depression, and other socio-emotional problems. The Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS®), originally developed at UCLA by Dr. Elizabeth Laugeson and Dr. Fred Frankel, is now available through the DBT Center of Arizona. PEERS® for Teens is a 16-week, 90 minute, evidence-based social skills group for motivated teens in middle and high school, age 13-18, diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder or other social disorders who have difficulty with peer interactions and relationships.
The PEERS® for Teens program teaches teens a variety of social skills, including how to:
- use appropriate conversational skills
- find common interests by trading information
- appropriately use humor
- enter and exit a conversation between peers
- handle rejection, teasing and bullying
- handle rumors and gossip
- be a good host during get-togethers
- make phone calls to friends
- choose appropriate friends
- be a good sport
- handle arguments and disagreements with people
- change a bad reputation
Parents will attend separate sessions at the same time and will learn: how to assist their teen in making and keeping friends; how to help expand their teen’s social network; and how to provide their teen with feedback through coaching during weekly socialization homework assignments.
PEERS for Teens differs from other social skills programs because it:
- is evidence-based
- includes parents throughout treatment
- breaks down social skills into understandable steps
- teaches ecologically valid social skills based on behavior of socially successful individuals
- generalizes social skills to “real life” settings and includes skills that transfer to the workplace
Click here for more info of to sign up.
