A programme that improves social skills in teenagers with autism

A new study shows improved social skills in teenagers with autism after 14 weeks of the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS), developed by Elizabeth Laugeson, PsyD, and Fred Frankel, PhD, at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

"Children with autism are very socially isolated and often don't take part in activities outside the classroom," says Dr Laugeson. "We need to encourage parents to help put their children in groups with peers, so they have the chance to make new friends."

The social difficulties of teenagers with autism include poor conversation skills (such as repeating themselves or one-sided conversation), not trying to join in with peers, and limited social activities. These lead to rejection by peers, social isolation and a lack of close friends. PEERS aims to tackle these core difficulties, as Dr Laugeson reported for her team at the 7th Annual International Meeting for Autism Research in 2008.

The key to the programme is training parents to act as social coaches. Parents and teenagers meet separately, at the same time, for 90 minutes a week for 14 weeks. The teenagers learn how to:

use good conversation skills (trading information, finding common interests, two-way conversation, body language);
use humour;
join and leave conversations;
choose suitable friends;
be a good host when friends visit;
handle arguments and disagreements with friends;
handle teasing and bullying.

Clinical psychologists set out rules and steps for social etiquette and wrote conversation scripts; the teenagers took part in role play and had practical homework supervised by their parents.

After 14 weeks, social skills improved, and a month later the teenagers were better hosts with their friends; parents also said there was less conflict between them. On the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS), parents' scores improved by eight points. Teachers, who weren't involved in the training, also noticed striking improvements: their SSRS scores were ten points higher after 14 weeks, while scores for untreated teenagers fell by five points. The team will continue following the results over the coming months.