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In-Person Sessions in BENDIGO!

 

About PEERS® for Teens

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PEERS® for Adolescents/Teens (Ages 13-17) is a 14-week evidence-based social skills intervention for motivated teens, who are interested in learning skills to make and keep friends as well as how handing conflict and rejection. During each group session, teens are taught important social skills and are given the opportunity to practice these skills during socialisation activities.

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Parents/Carers of teens also attend separate sessions with a social coach. Parents/Carers are taught how to assist teens in making and keeping friends by providing feedback during weekly socialisation homework assignments.​

What happens in PEERS®?

During the 14-week program, participants will be exposed to a range of skills and topics, including how to:

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  • Use appropriate conversational skills

  • Choose appropriate friends

  • Appropriately use electronic forms of communication

  • Appropriately use humour and assess humour feedback

  • Start, enter and exit conversations between peers

  • Organise successful get-togethers with friends

  • Be a good sport when playing games/sports with friends

  • Handle arguments and disagreements with friends and in relationships

  • Handle rejection, teasing, bullying, rumours/gossip and cyber bullying

  • Change a bad reputation

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Attendees are presented with targeted skills through step-by-step instruction, role-play demonstrations, and the opportunity to practice the real-world skills through behavioural rehearsal exercises. During these behavioural rehearsals, attendees are divided into small breakout groups to practice with direct coaching from our program team. Adolescents and young adults must be socially motivated and attend each session with a social coach.

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Social Coaches (i.e., parent, family member, adult sibling, life coach, job coach, peer mentor, support worker) attend a separate group (at the same time) in which they are provided with additional instruction on how to coach participants through practice and provide constructive feedback.

Why choose PEERS® for Teens?

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  • The PEERS® program has been shown to be effective through multiple randomised controlled trials and maintenance of gains 1-5 years after treatment has been evidenced.

  • After the 14 week PEERS® program, research results revealed an overall improvement in social skills, reported by caregivers. This included cooperative social behaviour with peers and caregivers, social assertiveness and self-control.

  • After the 14 week program, participants showed significant improvements in social responsiveness, due to the programs attention to receptive and expressive social communication skills.

  • Participants also significantly improve their empathy after the 14 week program. This may be due to an increase of social cognitive skills, leading people to understand people’s mental and emotional states to make sense of the people’s behaviour.

  • The PEERS® program reduced self-reported loneliness due to greater participation in social activities and hobbies, as well as the development of friendship.

  • Frequency of invited get-togethers (i.e., social invitations extended to the participant from non-PEERS friends) increased greatly according to caregiver report.

Program cost and inclusions

The cost of our 14-week PEERS® Program: $4250 Everything Included. This amounts to $303 per week.($101 per hour)

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This is inclusive of:

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  • 90 minute social skills group

  • 90 minute training for the allocated social coach

  • Frequent parent/carer mentoring and support session

  • Resources provided to support participant and social coach

  • Weekly homework tasks to build and develop skills between sessions

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ALL SESSIONS ARE DELIVERED BY PEERS® ACCREDITED FACILITATORS

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PEERS® is NDIS supported

The NDIS supports individuals with social and emotional difficulties, decision making powers over the support services they receive. PEERS® can help participants meet their social, emotional and behavioural goals. These goals often will align with the NDIS plan goals. The PEERS® program can enable participants and their family’s capacity building in the following areas:

  • Social and Community Participation

  • Improved Relationships

  • Improved Daily Living Skills​

We can accept clients who have self-managed and plan-managed NDIS packages. We are unable to accept NDIA-managed plans.

How do I enrol my teen? 

Click the Register Now button at the top of the page and one of our friendly team will be in touch.

Participation requirements?

  • The adolescent/teen is experiencing friendship problems

  • The adolescent/teen is age between 13 to 18-years-old

  • The adolescent/teen must be interested in attending the program and agrees to participate voluntarily

  • The adolescent/teen must consistently attend the program

  • The adolescent/teen must have a consistent parent/carer willing to attend the program

 

What does the research say?

 

 

To read more, click here: 

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