El. knyga: PEERS Curriculum for School-Based Professionals: Social Skills Training for Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder [Taylor & Francis e-book]

Laugeson, a clinical psychologist who teaches in psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, shares the application of her PEERS (Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills) program in schools, which seeks to improve the social skills and interactions among higher-functioning teens with autism spectrum disorders who do not have significant intellectual disabilities. It focuses on skills related to making and keeping friends and managing peer conflict and rejection, and a cognitive-behavioral orientation. The initial chapters provide information on the curriculum, composition of classes, required personnel, teaching methods, and behavioral management techniques, as well as what to expect and how to track progress, followed by guides to daily lessons that describe preparation, homework reviews, presenting didactic lessons, role-play demonstrations, behavioral rehearsal exercises, and guidelines for conducting activities. Material for students is presented as a series of rules or steps, and techniques include behavioral rehearsal techniques and homework assignments. The manual is based on Social Skills for Teenagers with Developmental and Autism Spectrum Disorders: The PEERS Treatment Manual, a parent-assisted social skills program for adolescents with autism and other social challenges. This manual replaces the original parent-assisted outpatient model with a teacher-facilitated school-based model, and parents are provided with handouts, but parent groups are not included. It also uses a daily lesson format rather than a once weekly format and includes 16 weeks of lessons instead of 14; the two additional lessons address strategies for cyberbullying, physical bullying, and changing a reputation. It adds new content on new social skills, and new lessons, such as on starting individual conversations and exchanging contact information, as well as additional rules, steps, and buzz phrases of social behavior. It has new and updated perspective taking questions and role-play demonstrations of appropriate and inappropriate social behavior. Annotation ©2014 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

The PEERS® Curriculum for School-Based Professionals brings UCLA's highly acclaimed and widely popular PEERS program into the school setting. This sixteen-week program, clinically proven to significantly improve social skills and social interactions among teens with autism spectrum disorder, is now customized for the needs of psychologists, counselors, speech pathologists, administrators, and teachers. The manual is broken down into clearly divided lesson plans, each of which have concrete rules and steps, corresponding homework assignments, plans for review, and unique, fun activities to ensure that teens are comfortable incorporating what they've learned. The curriculum also includes parent handouts, tips for preparing for each lesson, strategies for overcoming potential pitfalls, and the research underlying this transformative program.