Making Friends and Influencing NTs. . . An interview with Liz Laugeson

I sat down with Liz Laugeson of UCLA’s PEERS program to talk about how to make friends. Making friends can be hard for individuals with Autism / Asperger’s because we have a hard time figuring out social cues.

A lot of the social skills training I’ve run across focus on concrete skills like introducing yourself. These skills are great in theory but autistics like myself often struggle with figuring out what actually works in practice. The PEERS program, however, seems to be based in real life application of social skills.

Concrete steps and real world practice = success. I am in agreement that the social skills practice best outcomes will be with their NT peers. I directed an integrated after school and summer day camp program, where the NT peers became the best advocates for the students on the spectrum.