Social Skills for Summer

It’s finally summer! School’s out, and families are looking forward to all the fun that can accompany this welcome, much-needed break.

Some parents see their teen or young adult just sidelined — not inviting any peers from school to do anything, and not being invited to participate in any activities, either. It’s as if they just don’t know how to take the first step in making a school acquaintance more of a real friend, In Real Life.

Or, perhaps they have tried, felt the pain of rejection, and decided not to subject themselves to that again — too risky.

Often those who struggle socially (due to autism, adhd or another diagnosis) have gotten “social skills classes” in school, yet they still have no friends.

That’s because the social skills intervention offered in the schools 1) not intensive enough — one 30 minute lesson a week doesn’t cut it; 2) the instructor is not using an evidence-based, proven curriculum; and 3) there’s no parent training component.

The hardest part as a parent is wanting to help your child, but not knowing how.

We also know that, without practice using the skills of initiating, cultivating and maintaining friendships, these skills don’t improve. The same “use it or lose it” principles apply, whether it’s playing piano or starting a conversation with a peer.

A proven, evidence based, highly effective social skills training course is just what your family needs this summer, to help address these lagging skills and to prepare your teen or young adult for the upcoming school year, which may involve transitions to middle school, high school, or even college.

UCLA’s Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills, or PEERS, is the ONLY proven social skills program available for teens, young adults, and their parents, who serve in the role of “social coach” and learn exactly how to help their teen or young adult acquire and maintain these skills.

Social skills classes, when taught effectively, use the principles of direct, explicit instruction in a highly structured, systematic manner. Additionally, practical social skills classes include not just the human who is struggling socially, but also other people in their world — a parent or other responsible adult — who also learns these skill at the same time. Their inclusion helps the social skills training course materials to generalize, or carry over, outside of the virtual class environment into other communication contexts, like school, work, and extracurricular activities.

If you’re going to invest time and money in a social skills training course, you want it to be one that has been proven to work. What does that mean, though? That means that, under our guidance, you help your teen or adult find and establish a source of friends, work the skills they learn in class, and ultimately have a get-together with someone at least every other week. The research shows that those who took the PEERS social skills training course, even up to five years after the class ended, were having an average of four get-togethers a month. That’s a social life!