Parent-assisted social skills training to improve friendships in teens with autism spectrum disorders.
Parent-coached social skills groups help autistic teens host more get-togethers and learn social rules, but newer PEERS trials give you bigger, longer-lasting gains.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers ran a 14-week social skills group for 13- to young learners with autism.
Parents joined every session and learned to coach their teen at home.
Half the families started right away; the other half waited.
Both groups took tests on social knowledge and parents kept logs of real-life get-togethers.
What they found
Teens who got the training scored higher on social knowledge tests.
They also invited friends over more often than the wait-list group.
Parents said overall social skills improved, but only they noticed; teachers saw no change.
How this fits with other research
Płatos et al. (2022) ran a newer, larger trial of the PEERS program and saw bigger gains that lasted six months.
Their results supersede the 2009 medium-size effects and show hybrid delivery works too.
Nickerson et al. (2015) tested the same PEERS model and added parent benefits: less chaos at home and higher parenting confidence.
W Vernon et al. (2018) kept the teen focus but swapped parent coaches for an immersive camp format called START and still saw social growth, extending the idea beyond the living room.
Why it matters
You already have a playbook: teach the teen, train the parent, assign homework get-togethers.
The updated PEERS manuals give you larger, longer-lasting effects and an online option when families can’t drive in.
Add a parent self-care module to cut household stress and boost follow-through.
Next time you write a treatment plan, list both teen and parent goals; the data say the duo works better than teen-only groups.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study examines the efficacy of a manualized parent-assisted social skills intervention in comparison with a matched Delayed Treatment Control group to improve friendship quality and social skills among teens 13-17 years of age with autism spectrum disorders. Targeted skills included conversational skills, peer entry and exiting skills, developing friendship networks, good sportsmanship, good host behavior during get-togethers, changing bad reputations, and handling teasing, bullying, and arguments. Results revealed, in comparison with the control group, that the treatment group significantly improved their knowledge of social skills, increased frequency of hosted get-togethers, and improved overall social skills as reported by parents. Possibly due to poor return rate of questionnaires, social skills improvement reported by teachers was not significant. Future research should provide follow-up data to test the durability of treatment.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2009 · doi:10.1007/s10803-008-0664-5