Supports we use · part of our secondary school program
PEERS® for Adolescents.
PEERS® for Adolescents is a sixteen-week social skills program for teenagers. It runs inside The Cadets, our secondary school program.
What we believe
We believe teenagers need the rules that actually apply, not the ones adults wish applied.
Most providers believe that a teenager should be taught to be kind, polite and themselves, and that friendship will follow from good character. The thinking is that good values make good friends, so the advice is to be yourself, ignore the ones who tease you, and tell a teacher if it goes wrong. Parents give the same advice at home, sincerely, because it's what worked for them or what they were told. It sounds right, because it's decent advice for an adult, and it's hard to argue with kindness.
In reality, the rules of the teenage peer environment aren’t the rules adults teach. They’re what socially successful teenagers actually do, which is frequently the opposite of the advice being given at home. So a young person who follows the advice carefully can end up worse off than before, and neither they nor the adult can work out why. Repeating the advice more firmly doesn’t help.
That’s why we stopped relying on adult advice altogether. We deliver PEERS®, which is built on research into what socially successful young people actually do rather than on what adults think they should do. Sixteen weeks, one session a week, online. The young person learns how to trade information in a conversation, how to enter one already underway and get out of one going badly, how to use and read humour, how electronic communication works, how to handle teasing and rumours, and how to plan and host a get-together. You attend as their social coach, in a separate session, and you are the one who helps them practise it during the week. What we are doing is giving them options they were never shown. What they do with those options is up to them.
What changes
What your teenager learns.
What changes for you, as their social coach
What it covers
Sixteen weeks of what actually works.
- Trading information in a conversation
- Entering a conversation underway, and getting out of one going badly
- Using humour, and reading how it lands
- Electronic communication
- Handling teasing, bullying, rumours and gossip
- Being a good sport
- Planning and hosting a get-together
- Resolving a disagreement with a friend
Who it's for
For teenagers who want friendships.
Who it's for
Autistic and neurodivergent teenagers who want friendships. That wanting is the entry point, because it's the one thing a program can't supply.
Intellectual disability isn't an exclusion: it means more repetition and simpler instruction. Rejecting the diagnosis isn't an exclusion either.
When something else needs to come first
Where significant social anxiety needs treating first, or behaviour would currently stop someone taking part in a group, PEERS® isn't the right starting point yet. Your teenager is still part of our secondary school program, and the online gaming clubs are often where we start.
Where it fits
Part of our secondary school program.
PEERS® for Adolescents sits inside The Cadets, alongside online gaming clubs, PathWays, LiftOff, holiday activities and functional assessment.
Common questions
What people usually ask.
Anything else, ask us on the call.
Why does a parent have to attend?
Because the skills don't make it past the group room without somebody coaching them during the week. Teaching the young person alone doesn't carry over, and teaching the parent alone leaves nothing to coach. It works because you're both learning.
What if my teenager doesn't want to do it?
Then it isn't the right time for PEERS®, and we won't push it. Wanting friendships is the entry point. There is usually something else useful to do in the meantime.
Is teaching social skills the same as masking?
No. We teach what actually works among people that age, and leave the person to choose whether to use it. What we add is options they were never shown. We never describe what we do as helping somebody fit in.
Is it online?
Yes. Sessions run online, anywhere in Australia.
Take the first step
Let's talk about what's happening.
Request a call back and one of our team will ring you at a time that suits. It takes about fifteen minutes, it's free, and you don't need anything worked out before we speak.