PEERS® (13-28yo)

Peers® For Teens & Young Adults

Evidence-based social skills course for teens & young adults.

Evidence-Based Social Skills Course

Helping people who have Autism, anxiety or who want general social skills growth.

Age-appropriate groups for 13-17 year olds & 18-28 year olds.

Peers For Teens & Young Adults is the world's foremost evidence-based course for young people with Autism. It is a fun, 4-month social skills upgrade and it is sooooooo much more fun than most therapies.. 

Support For Young People & Parents

Teens/Young Adults

14 Sessions

90 minutes per session

Mini-groups: 3 or 4 students, on Zoom.

Parent Training & Support

7 Sessions

75-90 minutes per session

With experienced leaders, on Zoom.

Next Start Dates (Australia):

Note that your young person's biweekly sessions could be on any weekday afternoon/evening that suits your family.

You choose two sessions /week. One is content and the other a fun role-play and practical session.

Session times are after school or after work times on weekdays.

Your family has a CHOICE of two weekly timeslot, because we run groups 5 days/week, so you have options.

September (2024) Groups:

Pick a weekly session time - beginning:

  • Mondays, starting 2 Sept or
  • Tuesdays, starting 3 Sept or
  • Wednes, starting 4 Sept or
  • Thursdays, starting 5 Sept

After-School or Evening sessions.

Peers® Course Content

Evidence-Based Social Skills

  • Session 1:  How to start conversations that feels natural and how to exchange information in social settings.
  • Session 2:  Ways to keep conversations flowing more easily and balanced ways of exchanging information.
  • Session 3:  Finding reliable sources of quality friends
  • Session 4:  Electronic communication – Do’s and don'ts
  • Session 5:  Appropriate use of humour – Depending on content, timing, & strength of relationships.
  • Session 6:  Entering group conversations and playing your role within the group.
  • Session 7:  Exiting conversations – When, how and why to leave conversations gracefully.
  • Session 8: Get-Togethers - How to plan for social events & steps for enjoying social times.
  • Session 9: 2 ELECTIVES: (a) Sportsmanship Skills OR (b) Pre-dating etiquette: How to talk & interact confidently with both guys & girls
  • Session 10: 2 ELECTIVES: (a) Games Winning & Losing OR (b) Simple Pre-dating etiquette: Basic dating do’s and don'ts
  • Session 11: Handling disagreements
  • Session 12: Handling direct bullying
  • session 13: Handling indirect bullying
  • Session 14: Social celebrations, socially confidence, revising other goals and skills

NDIS Funding Options

Total program cost: $2950

Includes everything:

  • All program sessions for your young person (14x sessions)
  • All parent training sessions (7x sessions)
  • All other support, communication etc - everything.


Self-Managed Families & Plan-Managed Families

NDIS funding can generally be used for self-managed or plan-managed participants. Your plan manager or support co-ordinator will be able to help you understand details.


Which Funding Categories?

Chat with your plan manager for what is relevant to your situation. It is helpful to know that other families have told us they use these categories:

a) Increased Social and Community Participation

OR

b) Improved daily living

Peace-Of-Mind Promise: What if my child needs to pull out?


Your child can:

Stop doing their course if they need to.

Switch to a different course if you need to.

Do ‘catch-up’ sessions for missed sessions.


You won't be billed for an entire course if your child needs to pull out.

Almost every time, our kids/teens find their groove and enjoy their sessions.

If your child needs tweaks, we can switch your child to a different mini-group, modify session times, or even pair them with a different leader.

We understand that sometimes life seriously happens… A death in the family, sudden health issues, parents going through a hard time etc etc. 

But rest assured, if it doesn't work out (and it will), you're only billed for the part of the course that your family participated in.

Advantages

After School/Work Sessions

Don't miss out on school.

We've set things up so that your child doesn't have to miss out on school and you don't have to deal with midday appointments. Instead, all sessions are at after-school times in the afternoons or evenings because your child needs routine. We can help that just by scheduling sessions conveniently for you.

No Waiting Lists!

You hate waiting lists and so do we!

Your child needs to learn asap. We have many, many groups and we would rather add more groups than have a waiting list. Every week your child is not learning new skills is a wasted week. We'll do everything we can so your child can start in our next course.

Teens & Young Adults Can Thrive

Peers is a proven learning program successfully used worldwide to help children with ASD, anxiety or any social skills development needs gain skills and confidence. It teaches students how to make friends and keep them. It gives your child the opportunity to develop a wide range of skills and gives them abundant opportunities to practice those new skills.

See What your Son/Daughter will learn:

NDIS Reports Provided

Parents often ask, “Can I please have a report for our NDIS plan review?”

Rest assured, the answer is a resounding "Yes!" 

We'll arrange that for you.

No hidden fees - All reporting like this is already built into the standard program fee, so you will not be given an extra fee beyond the usual cost of the program. 



Peers is Evidence-Based For Teens/Young Adults

Peers® for Teens is recognised world-wide as one of the most successful evidence-based programs of its kind in the world and has helped thousands of children over the last 10 years. The research behind this course is immense and extremely positive. It is one of the most widely-recognised and approved courses for teens with Autism and more.

See the Evidence-Base

Meet the Researcher who Created the PEERS Course

This program was first developed by Dr. Elizabeth Laugeson at the University of California (UCLA) PEERS®.  This results-driven program has a strong evidence-base for use with adolescents and young adults with Autism. We know of no other programs that have the same level of quality research behind them and the same level of evidence-based results over the long term.

Social, Communication & Life Skills - in an ASD-Friendly Way

1. Each session, young people learn a new social skill, broken down into simple steps.

2. Learners can see new skills demonstrated by leaders in a fun way.

3. We practise new skills in a supported environment.

4. Learners play fun games to discover effective ways to apply their new skills.

5. We help your young person to try out these skills at home and at school for themselves.

6. We collaborate with parents and teachers to create opportunities new skills to be practised.

What parents are saying

You are passionate about supporting, encouraging and growing the kids you’re working with. I’m so glad we’ve found you!

Sally J.

Mum of 9 year old daughter, near Melbourne.

Thank you for all your care and support with our son. We are so impressed and grateful for this program. Not to mention the skills he is using daily from it!

Irene

Delighted Mum of primary school son in Sydney.

Oh my goodness! Blake absolutely loved last night. Thank you so much! It made him feel very special and comfortable.

Vic

Mom of 10 year old child.

Helping Autistic Young People Learn New Skills

We use a range of Autism-friendly strategies to make it straight-forward for Autistic people to develop their social skills, conversational skills and teamwork skills. Here’s how we help young people grow their skills in an Autism-friendly way:

  • Make routines, rules and social norms clear and specific so that learners don’t have to guess what is expected.
  • Create ways for learners to use their new skills within the group or at home with a parent/supporter.
  • Explain the reasons why these steps work and why each social skill is worth learning and using.
  • Remember that life if supposed to be ‘fun’ - so we don’t take ourselves (or our mistakes) too seriously.

Other Programs Loved By Kids & Teens

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8-12 yr

Secret Agent Society® (SAS) is a fun, evidence-based learning experience, helping your child grow their social skills and emotional regulation skills. The engaging spy-game curriculum helps your child learn to make new friends and keep those friends. Kids can choose to feel happier, calmer and braver. Recommended by Psychologists, OTs and Speech Therapists.

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Start point - seniors

Peers® Social Skills (Teens/Young Adults)

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Peers is an friendly, evidence-based learning experience for teens and young people. Together with a caring “mini-group” of new friends and leaders, your young person learns skills and confidence for social interactions - learning new ways to make friends, keep friends, and thrive in life. Recommended by Psychologists, OTs and Speech Therapists.

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Minecraft Teamwork Group

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Each week, your child will enjoy creating and co-operating with other kids. Your child will be guided through teamwork skills, negotiation skills and friendship skills. Each week we build a different Minecraft building project together. Will we build a beach scene, a spaceship, or a theme-park?

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Art Friendship Group

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Kids and teens create fun art activities together, with our leaders helping and guiding your child through social skills to make new friends. It’s relaxed, supportive and very social. Each week we have a different art project that we work on together as a team (e.g. a drawing, painting, graphic design etc).

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Friendship Hero (Boys) Playground Skills

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Your young man builds on skills he’s learnt from SAS & Peers (Evidence-based social skills courses), targeted for the daily challenges that growing boys face. Your child learns to be more confident, contribute more to interactions with others and how to keep friends. It’s a fun experience, with a focus on playground-style social skills.

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“Worth It” (Girls) Friendship Skills

8-16 yr

Your daughter will love learning new social skills, building on the skills she gained in SAS & Peers (Evidence-based social skills courses).  In a fun, safe space your daughter learns how to navigate healthy relationships and develop social resilience. She can learn to ‘read the room’, evaluating social settings to drop her social ‘mask’ and shine as herself.

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Adventure Team - Role Playing Game

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Social Role Playing - A fun interactive Zoom board-game-like Social Skills learning experience on Zoom. Each session, we learn new social skills and then we apply those social skills as a Pirate, a Space Pilot or a Farmer.

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Free

Parent Encouragement Groups

Parents only

Parents who love hanging out and exchanging ideas - What’s working in your family right now, and what is tricky? Let’s learn together. Parent support, ideas & encouragement night are so much fun.

Learn more

Want to know more?

Is this course right for your child? Get in touch with the team to arrange for your child to get started. It’s a way to start learning about new social skills, making better friendships and enjoying their school experience more.

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