Getting Started Summary

The ‘Getting Started’ section of the PEERS book written by Dr. Laugeson touched on some topics and brief descriptions about how to teach social skills training to both the social coaches and young adults with autism spectrum disorder. The writer wrote about teaching methods and behavior management techniques to teach young adults the necessary skills to maintain meaningful relationships with others. Besides, she describes the lesson that should be included in the daily lessons for the social coaching group and young adult group. The lesson format and activities for the social coaching group and young adult group are slightly different.
For social coaching group, the first 50 minutes are for homework review to evaluate homework assignments

One of them is the teaching of didactic lessons using concrete rules and steps. It makes young adults with ASD understands the curriculum much better, as they prone to think in a concrete way. The teaching of the ecologically valid social skills is 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, PEERS use socratic method that involve conversations and includes demonstrating actions through role play to make them better remember what they learned. The uses of buzzwords are used to signify any important concepts from the syllabus. It is also important to write any buzzword on the board rather than using electronic presentations. Role-play demonstration is used to demonstrate any rules and steps of social manners to the students. Another method is perspective taking where the appropriate and inappropriate social behaviors will be discussed. Behavioral rehearsal exercises allow the students to practice and repeat any social skills that they learn and will be given feedback by the treatment team. Homework assignments and homework review are important methods that promote the students to use any social skills that they learn in natural settings and outside the group. Group leaders are also encouraged to alter the curriculum according

I have to establish a fun atmosphere in the group so that they can be actively engaged in the activities and learn the curriculum successfully and can apply them in their daily life. I also have to incorporate the socratic method by asking specific questions, in a way that I produce the response that I am seeking. In order to make them learn the meaning of friendship and how to obtain it, firstly, I have to ask them questions about what they know about friend, best friends etc., before giving them answers and write all good responses on the board. When teaching them about the types of friendships, after I give the meaning and characteristics of each of the types of friends, I have to ask them whether each of the ‘types of friendships’ portrays characteristics of a good friend or not. By doing this, they will learn which type of friendship is the best and learn how to characterize what type of friend a person is to