Social Skills Training To Young Adults With Autism And Other Social Challenges, By Dr. Laugeson

Introduction section of the PEERS book written by Dr. Laugeson touched on some topics and brief descriptions about how to teach social skills training to young adults with autism spectrum disorder and other social challenges. The writer also writes about each of the components that should be included in the daily lessons. Besides, the author describes briefly some teaching methods and also behavior management techniques that coaches can do in order to teach young adults the necessary skills to maintain meaningful relationships with others effectively. The author pointed out the meanings of some important components that need to be included in the daily lessons, such as the homework review, didactic lessons, behavior rehearsal and teen activity.
These techniques includes concrete didactic lessons, ecologically valid social skills, socratic method, use of buzzwords, board writing, role play demonstration, perspective taking questions, behavioral rehearsal exercises, coaching with performance feedback, homework assignments, homework review and flexibility with the manual. The teaching of didactic lessons using concrete rules and steps is a really beneficial method to use because individual with ASD prone to think in literal and concrete way and they tend to follow the rules rigidly. Thus, it makes it better for them to understand the steps of social behavior clearly. The teaching of the ecologically valid social skills is also important as it is a way of teaching individuals with ASD any kind of skills that people who are socially accepted naturally do in the real world situations. Rather than a lecture, socratic method is used that involve conversations and includes demonstrating actions through role play. This method allows the students to better remember what they
They also will learn in detail on how to make friends and how to keep close and meaningful friendships, or relationship in general. Therapist will explain the meaning of peers and friends and also the characteristics of good friendships. This includes sharing common interest, be kind and caring, provide support, have mutual understanding, promise to be there for each other in tough times, being honest and trustful, do not dominate one another, being able to share private thoughts, feelings history etc., and the ability to resolve any conflicts that will arise. The young adults will also learn how to distinguish between four types of friendships so that they can recognize what type of friend a person is. They learn the meaning and characteristics of acquaintances, casual friends, regular friends and best friends. The therapist also helps the young adults to distinguish between romantic relationships and regular