PEERS (Program for the Evaluation and Enrichment of Relational Skills) is a parent-assisted intervention focusing on teens in middle school and high school who are having difficulty making or keeping friends. at UCLA, PEERS focuses on teaching teens social skills like having conversations, using electronic forms of communication, choosing appropriate friends, handling teasing and bullying, handling arguments and disagreements, having appropriate get-togethers etc.
Typically developing teenagers often social etiquette by observing their peer's behaviour or from their parents. People with autism, ADHD and other development delays often require more instruction and practice to learn social skills. Learning to make and keep friends is especially difficult for these people and so they are frequently isolated and rejected. When this goes untreated, many adults with these conditions lack community connections and friendships.
Training both - teens as well as their parents, PEERS aims to train teens in techniques that will improve knowledge of the rules of social etiquette which are required to make and keep friends. It aims to increase the frequency of get-togethers at home and in the community with friends thereby increasing the quality of friendships and frequency of peer interactions. Coaching of the parents helps them to be their teens’ 'social coaches' at home. Sethu has conducted 3 PEERS programs since 2015.
Interested parents can register here