Social Skills Group

The Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS®) was originally developed at UCLA by Dr. Elizabeth Laugeson, and Dr. Fred Frankel in 2005.

PEERS® is a manualized, social skills training intervention for youth with social challenges. While it was originally designed for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), it has been found to be exceptionally beneficial for students of a variety of developmental differences, including social anxiety, ADHD, and depression. It has a strong evidence-base for use with adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorder, but is also appropriate for preschoolers, adolescents, and young adults with ADHD, anxiety, depression, and other socioemotional problems.

At Silver Linings, we offer PEERS to children/teens/adults, ages 10 years and up. Sessions are 14 weeks in duration, lasting from 4:30 to 6 weekly. For teens, there is a parent group that occurs at the same time as the teen group, with parents learning how to be social coaches to their teens.

Topics include:

• How to use appropriate conversational skills
• How to choose appropriate friends
• How to appropriately use electronic forms of communication
• How to appropriately use humor and assess humor feedback
• How to start, enter and exit conversations between peers
• How to organize successful get-togethers with friends
• How to be a good sport when playing games/sports with friends
• How to handle arguments and disagreements with friends and in relationships
• How to handle rejection, teasing, bullying, rumors/gossip, and cyber bullying
• How to change a bad reputation

We are always recruiting for these groups, but only start new groups in August and January of each year. If you are interested, please contact our office today to set up an initial appointment!