PEERS Program

We are excited about the opportunity to be able to work with adolescents to help them develop stronger social skills. The program is modeled after the UCLA PEERS program, and is designed to provide both your child and you with skills that will facilitate the acquisition, maintenance and generalization of social skills.

The friendship training provided is evidence-based and is derived from developmental research on how socially successful children build and maintain friendships. Parental participation is an integral part of this program. Parents will undergo training at the same time as their child, although the structure of each training program will differ in style. Parent and child commitment to the complete training program is a prerequisite to entry to the program.

The sessions will be held at our clinic office. The program is a 14-week program, with each meeting to last 1.5 hours.  If your student’s teacher is interested in participating, please let us know. Training sessions will be opened up to teachers.

The sessions will be held once a week in the evenings. Each class will have no more than 8 students, with 3 therapists to guide the training sessions. The parents will work with the BCBA to learn the skill acquisition material, review the previous weeks’ progress, and to strategize for the coming week.

Topics to be covered during the program include:

Introduction and Conversation Skills I: Trading Information
Conversation Skills II: Two-Way Conversations
Conversation Skills III: Electronic Communication
Choosing Appropriate Friends
Appropriate Use of Humor
Peer Entry I: Entering a Conversation
Peer Entry II: Exiting a Conversation
Get-Togethers
Good Sportsmanship
Rejection I: Teasing and Embarrassing Feedback
Rejection II: Bullying and Bad Reputations
Handling Disagreements
Rumors and Gossip
Graduation and Termination

If you are interested in learning more about our social skills program, please email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call 512.732.8400 to schedule an intake appointment.