Postdoctoral Scholar University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles, California, United States
Disclosure(s):
Rebecca R. Kammes, PhD, LMFT: No financial or non-financial relationships to disclose
Abstract: Adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often struggle with loneliness, peer victimization, and general social communication (APA, 2013). These concerns become even more apparent during middle school and high school, when social focus begins to shift away from family and towards forming friend groups and creating a social identity (Steinberg & Morris, 2001). The struggles with social communication and understanding, as well as some of the stereotyped behaviors that adolescents with ASD exhibit, can lead to isolation and potential further mental health concerns (Bierman et al., 2015; Fussner et al., 2018; Moore et al., 2017). This can be further compounded by the fact that many adolescent social interactions are more frequently occurring in an online space (Twenge et al., 2019). Social skills interventions aimed directly at increasing positive social interactions for adolescents with ASD has been shown to be an effective way to decrease concerns of loneliness and increase awareness of social situations and the ability to navigate those situations (Estabillo et al., 2022). Summary: The topic of this presentation will be the PEERS for Adolescents Intervention. The presentation will provide: background on the program and concerns it addresses related to social skills and making friends for adolescents with autism and other social/behavioral challenges, information on implementation of the intervention both in-person and via telehealth, the usefulness of including parent training components in the intervention, outcome data of the intervention, suggestions for working with this population in the area of social skills and social networks, information on further PEERS trainings and how to become a certified provider, and end with a Q&A session
Learning Objectives:
At the completion of this activity, participants should be able to:
Describe the content and format of the PEERS for Adolescents intervention and its application to teaching social skills to autistic adolescents.
Explain the usefulness of including parents in social skills training to increase the effectiveness and generalizability for adolescents.
Recognize the implementation and usefulness of telehealth delivered services for this population.