The ABC's of teaching social skills to adolescents with autism spectrum disorder in the classroom: the UCLA PEERS (®) Program.
Middle-school teachers can deliver PEERS® in class and still produce clear social gains for students with autism.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Teachers ran the 14-week PEERS® class with middle-school students who have autism. The class met during regular school hours. Students practiced greetings, phone calls, and hosting get-togethers.
A second group used a different social curriculum. Both groups stayed in their usual classrooms. Teachers, parents, and students filled out rating forms before and after.
What they found
The PEERS® group showed medium gains in social skills. Teachers saw more class participation. Parents saw more hosted get-togethers. Students said they felt more confident talking to peers.
The active-control group improved only a little. The gap between groups held up 14 weeks later.
How this fits with other research
Mei-Ip et al. (2024) found very large drops in bullying after the same PEERS® lessons. Their study used cultural tweaks and parent coaches, not teachers. The bigger effect may come from extra parent practice or different outcome tools.
Yoo et al. (2014) ran the program in Korea the same year. They also saw medium social gains, showing the lessons travel across cultures. Montanaro et al. (2024) later added booster sessions and squeezed out even more gains, proving the core 14 weeks can be topped up.
Van Hecke et al. (2015) looked at brain waves after PEERS®. Teens shifted toward a more social brain pattern. The classroom version in Laugeson et al. (2014) gives the same behavioral lift, so the neural change likely still happens even when teachers lead.
Why it matters
You do not need outside clinicians to run PEERS®. Any motivated teacher can follow the manual during elective or study-skills periods. Slot the 14 lessons into the semester, keep the homework sheets, and track get-togethers with parents. You will see real-world social growth without pulling kids out of class.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Social skills training is a common treatment method for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet very few evidence-based interventions exist to improve social skills for high-functioning adolescents on the spectrum, and even fewer studies have examined the effectiveness of teaching social skills in the classroom. This study examines change in social functioning for adolescents with high-functioning ASD following the implementation of a school-based, teacher-facilitated social skills intervention known as Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS (®) ). Seventy-three middle school students with ASD along with their parents and teachers participated in the study. Participants were assigned to the PEERS (®) treatment condition or an alternative social skills curriculum. Instruction was provided daily by classroom teachers and teacher aides for 14-weeks. Results reveal that in comparison to an active treatment control group, participants in the PEERS (®) treatment group significantly improved in social functioning in the areas of teacher-reported social responsiveness, social communication, social motivation, social awareness, and decreased autistic mannerisms, with a trend toward improved social cognition on the Social Responsiveness Scale. Adolescent self-reports indicate significant improvement in social skills knowledge and frequency of hosted and invited get-togethers with friends, and parent-reports suggest a decrease in teen social anxiety on the Social Anxiety Scale at a trend level. This research represents one of the few teacher-facilitated treatment intervention studies demonstrating effectiveness in improving the social skills of adolescents with ASD in the classroom: arguably the most natural social setting of all.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2014 · doi:10.1007/s10803-014-2108-8