Cleveland Clinic Children's Outcomes

PEERS® for Young Adults is an evidence-based social skills intervention run by occupational therapists for motivated young adults age 18-25 year old's who are interested in making and keeping friends and/or developing dating relationships. Young adults who benefit from this group may have a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, developmental delay, intellectual disability, down syndrome, or other diagnoses that may impact social skills. Young adults and social coaches (a parent or other caregiver) attend 16-weekly group sessions for 90 minutes per week. Young adults are taught social skills through didactic lessons and role-play demonstrations and practice these skills during group socialization activities. Social coaches are also taught how to assist young adults in making and keeping friends and/or dating.

At the beginning of the group, participants are given the TYASSK, Test of Young Adults Social Skills Knowledge. This assessment is a 30-question quiz assessing social skills knowledge. An increased score represents increased knowledge related to social skills. There were 13 participants who completed the group. The average test score at the beginning of the group was 13.4. The average score by the end of group was 19.9 showing a 6.5-point score increase. Previous research using the TYASSK in PEERS® for Young Adults generally yields a 6 to 8 point raw score improvement.

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