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Social skills training has increasingly become a common method for assisting adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) more effectively adapt to their social environment. Yet, the majority of treatment intervention studies in this area have focused on improving the social skills of younger children with ASD. Among the few social skills intervention studies conducted with older adolescents, most have not been formally tested in terms of their efficacy in developing close friendships, nor do they assess social functioning from independent observers, such as teachers.
Objectives:
This study examines the efficacy of a manualized evidence-based parent-assisted social skills intervention, known as the UCLA PEERS Program, in improving overall social skills and friendship quality among teens 13-17 years of age with high-functioning autism or Asperger’s Disorder.
Methods:
30 participants and their parents were randomly assigned to a treatment with follow-up condition or a delayed treatment control condition. Participants attended weekly 90-minute group treatment sessions over a 14-week period. Targeted skills included: conversational skills; peer entry and exiting skills; appropriate use of humor; developing and expanding friendship networks; good host behavior during get-togethers; good sportsmanship; strategies for handling rejection including teasing, bullying, arguments, and rumors/gossip; and strategies for changing bad reputations. Skills were taught through didactic instruction using concrete rules and steps of social etiquette in conjunction with role-playing exercises. Teen participants practiced newly learned skills during behavioral rehearsal exercises within the group, and parent-assisted weekly socialization homework assignments outside of the group.
Results:
Findings suggest that teens exhibited significant improvement in social functioning and friendship skills following the treatment intervention, according to self-report, parent-reports, and independent teacher reports.
Conclusions:
These findings suggest that the use of PEERS, a parent-assisted manualized social skills intervention, is efficacious in improving the social competence and friendship skills of teens with ASD.