A Randomized Controlled Trial of the Social Tools And Rules for Teens (START) Program: An Immersive Socialization Intervention for Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

W Vernon et al. (2018) randomly assigned 40 autistic teens to START or a wait-list. The 20-week program mixes games, outings, and coached hang-outs. Groups met after school to practice real-life social rules.

START beat the wait-list. Social skills, get-togethers, and parent ratings all moved up. Gains showed up across the whole group, not just a few stars.

The result lines up with Płatos et al. (2022). Their Polish PEERS® trial also found big teen social gains, even when half the sessions were on Zoom. Both RCTs say the same thing: group social training works.

Johnson et al. (2009) did something similar but added parent coaching. They saw gains too, so START shows teens can improve without extra parent homework.

Saré et al. (2020) took the same idea to adults. JOBSS used short work-place social drills and still lifted social cognition and job landing. The pattern holds from middle school to the office.

You now have three solid RCTs that say group social training is worth the time. START gives you a ready script, no parent classes needed. If you run middle- or high-school groups, plug in the 20-week plan and track get-together counts. The evidence says your students will actually use the skills outside the room.