About the program

PEERS® School-Based —
designed for educators & parents.

PEERS® (Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills) is the most rigorously evaluated social skills curriculum for adolescents. The School-Based program adapts it for the people already in the room with these students — teachers, counsellors, school psychologists, allied-health practitioners and trained parents — across classrooms, after-school programs, community settings, private practice and the home.

Where the program comes from

PEERS® was developed by Dr. Elizabeth Laugeson at the UCLA Semel Institute. Originally designed for clinical settings, the curriculum has since been adapted for delivery by school-based and community providers, and validated across multiple randomised controlled trials.

Why a separate school-based program?

School and community settings are different from clinics. Group sizes are bigger, sessions are tied to timetables or program blocks, and the facilitator is typically not a psychologist. The School-Based program accounts for all of this — pacing, group management, parent and teacher coaching, and outcome measurement adapted for educational and community settings. It also extends beyond the classroom: parents reinforce the same skills at home, and certified providers can run the program in after-school, NGO and private-practice contexts.

Who delivers it

Certified School-Based Providers include classroom teachers, school counsellors, school psychologists, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, school administrators, allied-health practitioners, graduate students in education or psychology, and trained parents reinforcing the skills at home. No clinical degree is required.

What students it serves

Any adolescent (roughly ages 11–17) who struggles socially — including students with autism spectrum conditions, ADHD, anxiety, depression, social phobia, peer rejection or general social isolation. PEERS® is not diagnosis-gated.

Who operates peers.asia