#203B: A Radically Different Approach to Social Skills Coaching With IRL Social Skills
1:30 PM – 2:30 PM, Friday, May 6, 2022
Presenter(s):
Mara McLoughlin, MS, CCC-SLP, Owner, IRL Social Skills
Description:
IIRL Social Skills offers life-changing social skills for autistic and neurodivergent teens and adults and their families. We accept only those who want to learn concrete rules and steps to making and keeping friends using UCLA’s PEERS curriculum. Our team of LGBTQ+, #actuallyautistic/ADHD clinicians uses UCLA’s Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS) 16-week manualized curriculum. Highly effective, empirically valid, delivered entirely via Zoom to cause less disruption to family schedules. We teach teens and young adults and their parents how to find a source of friends, initiate and maintain friendships, handle disagreements, and dating etiquette. We also add 15 minutes of supplementary material in central nervous system education, mindfulness and interoception skills. A unique feature is the inclusion of a parent, or social coach, and weekly homework assignments, to help facilitate carryover of these skills – In Real Life.
Learning Objectives:
Participants will learn:
– What the research shows about lagging social skills in autistic teens and adults and why explicit instruction and direct practice across settings is necessary to address them
– The role parents play in social skill acquisition
– Long-term outcomes of participation in evidence-based social skills curriculums
– The #actuallyautistic research on the autistic neurotype and the double empathy problem
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