The UCLA PEERS School-Based Program: Treatment Outcomes for Improving Social Functioning in Adolescents and Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Those with Cognitive Deficits.

Wyman et al. (2020) ran the UCLA PEERS program inside public high schools. Students had autism or intellectual disability. They met once a week for the full semester. No control group was used.

Everyone learned the rules of social etiquette. Only students with intellectual disability made more friends. Autistic teens could repeat the rules but rarely used them at lunch or in the hallway.

Płatos et al. (2022) looks like a contradiction. Their Polish RCT found big, lasting gains for autistic teens. The difference: they ran PEERS in a clinic with parent coaches and strict random assignment. Joshua moved the same lessons into a noisy school without extra adults.

Boudreau et al. (2015) already showed the recipe works when parents help. Their clinic trial found strong gains that stayed for 16 weeks. Joshua’s school version removed the parent piece and the gains faded.

Chang et al. (2014) warned us. They showed that autistic teens who think they already know social rules gain the least. Joshua’s students may have fit that profile, so the program needed extra generalization steps.

If you run PEERS in a school, add parent zoom nights and lunch-buddy practice. Without those extras, autistic students learn the script but stay on the sidelines. Use the Polish study as your checklist: caregiver coaching, real peer get-togethers, and out-of-class rehearsal.