The PEERS Curriculum for School-Based Professionals

Social Skills Training for Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Elizabeth A. Laugeson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136239601
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Educación inclusiva

The PEERS® Curriculum for School-Based Professionals brings UCLA's highly acclaimed and widely popular PEERS program into the school setting. This sixteen-week program, clinically proven to significantly improve social skills and social interactions among teens with autism spectrum disorder, is now customized for the needs of psychologists, counselors, speech pathologists, administrators, and teachers. The manual is broken down into clearly divided lesson plans, each of which have concrete rules and steps, corresponding homework assignments, plans for review, and unique, fun activities to ensure that teens are comfortable incorporating what they've learned. The curriculum also includes parent handouts, tips for preparing for each lesson, strategies for overcoming potential pitfalls, and the research underlying this transformative program.

WEEK 1 INTRODUCTION AND TRADING INFORMATION

Preparing for the Lesson

The primary goal of the first week is to orient the teens to the structure of the class and establish group cohesion through a brief didactic lesson and behavioral rehearsal exercise. It will be very important for you to establish clear expectations in the first lesson and to minimize any misbehavior. For assistance with misbehavior, see the Behavioral Management Techniques section in Chapter 1 of this manual.

In the very early stages of the class, it is common for teens to exhibit the “too cool for school syndrome.” They may act as if they do not need help and as if they do not belong in the class as a means to “save face.” It is common for one or two students to behave in this way, particularly older teens. It is recommended that you do not attempt to engage in a debate with these teens about why they should participate in the program. This will only serve to embarrass other teens who were eager to participate. Instead, in an attempt to normalize the experience, you should speak generally about the benefits of improving friendships by explaining that making and keeping friends can be difficult, and that everyone can stand to learn more about the process. If the “too cool for school syndrome” is disruptive to the class, you may need to meet with the teen outside of the class and make sure he or she wants to be there. Remember that social motivation is critical to success in PEERS^®. If you have a student that does not want to be there, he or she should not be. It may create a negative contagion in the class and will probably do very little good for the oppositional teen.

A controlled classroom environment is important to ensure that the teens get the maximum benefit from the didactic portion of the lesson. Students should have to raise their hands in order to speak, and teens should not be allowed to talk over one another or engage in long or overly personal stories. Establish these expectations by presenting the rules for the class, as indicated in the lesson guide. In order to ensure that the teens are compliant with these rules, it will be helpful to present the rules by having the teens generate explanations for why each of these rules is important. This discussion will help them be more compliant with the rules.

If a teen launches into an unrelated discussion, you should avoid allowing the teen to get too far off track by redirecting him or her by saying, “Is this on topic?” You should also not hesitate to redirect tangential teens who give overly lengthy responses to questions, as this also takes away from the class. In such cases, it can be helpful to say, “Okay, we're going to have to move on. We have a lot to cover.” If the teen persists, you might say, “If we have time later, we can talk about that.” However, it is not advisable to revisit the topic, as this only reinforces tangential comments.

It is very important for you to establish a fun environment for the class. Creating a fun environment involves getting the teens actively engaged in the process of generating the rules for the lessons. PEERS^® uses a very specific curriculum involving concrete rules and steps for social behavior. The process by which these rules and steps are generated is through a Socratic method of questioning, and through role-playing demonstrations. The former involves asking specific questions in such a way that you elicit the response you were seeking. The latter involves specific demonstrations of both appropriate a...