PEERS Curriculum for School-Based Professionals

Elizabeth A. Laugeson, PsyD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and an assistant clinical professor in the department of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. Dr. Laugeson is the director of The Help Group - UCLA Autism Research Alliance, a collaborative research initiative dedicated to developing and expanding applied clinical research in the treatment of children and adolescents with ASD. She is also the founder and director of the UCLA PEERS® Clinic, an outpatient hospital-based program providing parent-assisted social skills training for adolescents and young adults with ASD, as well as youths with ADHD, depression, anxiety, and other social impairments.

"This book is so very timely. The well-known and widely used PEERS® social skills training program has been adopted in many clinical settings. By taking the program into schools, and also demonstrating the effectiveness of the program via research studies, Laugeson and her team have produced a manual that the education sector has been asking for. It will be widely adopted and deserves to be so."—Tony Charman, PhD, chair in clinical child psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, UK"The PEERS® program is evidence-based, accessible to school-based practitioners, and enjoyable for the students! We have needed something like this for a long time, so it's great that this is now available. This program has clear potential to make a positive difference in the lives of students with ASD."—Susan White, PhD, associate professor of psychology, codirector of the Virginia Tech Autism Clinic, and assistant director of the Child Study Center at Virginia Tech"In an area where few resources exist, this manualized approach offers a guide for teaching social skills to teens with autism and related conditions. It will be of interest to teachers, school psychologists, speech pathologists, and others who deal with this important area."—Fred R. Volkmar, MD, Irving B. Harris Professor and director of the Child Study Center at the Yale University School of Medicine"The PEERS® curriculum is an important advancement in social-skills training for teens with autism. This thoughtful, ecologically valid intervention is time limited, makes reasonable demands on teachers, students, and parents, and has shown remarkable outcomes when implemented in schools. I strongly encourage schools to use this program as an important component of a comprehensive program to increase successful social participation among adolescents on the spectrum."—David Mandell, director of the Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, and associate director of the Center for Autism Research at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

• List of Tables Preface Acknowledgements About the Author 1. Getting Started 2. Week 1: Introduction and Trading Information 3. Week 2: Two Way Conversations 4. Week 3: Electronic Communication 5. Week 4: Choosing Appropriate Friends 6. Week 5: Appropriate Use of Humor 7. Week 6: Starting and Joining Conversations 8. Week 7: Exiting Conversations 9. Week 8: Good Sportsmanship 10. Week 9: Get-Togethers 11. Week 10: Handling Arguments 12. Week 11: Changing Reputations 13. Week 12: Handling Teasing and Embarrassing Feedback 14. Week 13: Avoiding Physical Bullying 15. Week 14: Handling Cyber Bullying 16. Week 15: Minimizing Rumors and Gossip 17. Week 16: Final Review, Post-Test Assessment, and Graduation References Index