Perceived and Observed Treatment Gains Following PEERS: A Preliminary Study with Latinx Adolescents with ASD.
Elina Veytsman, Elizabeth Baker, Ann Marie Martin and 3 others
PMID 35157167WHAT IT FOUND
Teens reported social knowledge gains, parents reported social skills gains, and both reported more hosted get-togethers after PEERS, but blind observers did not find clear conversational improvement.
This is a small pilot, so do not treat it as proof the program works.
Key findings
01Adolescents with ASD reported a significant increase in PEERS-specific social knowledge from pre- to post-treatment, and the gain was stable at follow-up.
02Parents reported significant improvements in their child's social responsiveness from pre- to post-treatment, and these were maintained at follow-up.
03Blind-coded conversation ratings did not show significant overall improvement from pre- to post-treatment; only fewer initiated topic changes and greater kinesic arousal were significant.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Only 13 adolescents with ASD were analyzed, and four of the 17 enrolled dropped out, so the results are preliminary and may not apply to less motivated families or adolescents with higher support needs. The study did not randomly assign participants to treatment or a control condition; the ASD group was a convenience sample, so improvement could reflect selection, maturation, or other factors. PEERS was delivered as a package with teen instruction, role-play, homework, points, parent coaching, and translated materials, so the study cannot separate which component produced the reported gains. Follow-up assessments happened during COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, which likely reduced opportunities for social get-togethers and may have affected maintenance results. The conversation task used college-student confederates rather than same-age peers, and it was only scored before and after treatment, not at follow-up for one cohort. The outcome measures compare autistic teens with neurotypical norms, which the authors note may not be a neutral way to judge social competence. The typically developing group did not receive the intervention or the conversation task, so it mainly provided a questionnaire comparison point rather than a matched control.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that PEERS improves observed conversation. Blind raters found no clear overall improvement from before to after treatment, and the study had only 13 adolescents with ASD and no random assignment.