Enrollment for our high school EFFECT and modified PEERS® programs are on a rolling admissions basis. Please contact [email protected] for the intake form to begin the process and [email protected] to find out when our next sessions are or any other questions.

Modified PEERS® Purpose

  • The modified PEERS® program is an evidence-based social skills intervention through the Hearing and Speech Sciences (HESP) Department at the University of Maryland, College Park.
  • Two of the lessons that encouraged teens masking who they are, have been replace with self-advocacy and conflict resolution lessons.
  • This program is for motivated teens in high school who have differences in their social interactions and are interested in learning new ways to make and keep friends.
  • During group sessions, teens are taught a variety of social interaction skills and are given the opportunity to practice these skills in session different activities.     ​
  • This social social interaction program is specifically designed for students who plan on attending a 2- or 4 year college upon completion of high school.

PARENT ROLE:
Parents attend concurrent 90-minute sessions and are taught how to support their teens in making and keeping friends. Parents help expand their teen's social network and provide feedback through coaching during weekly practice assignments. 

EFFECT Purpose

This program serves to help teens who need to build executive function skills that help them be more successful with home, school, and social activities.  The teens who would benefit from these group and individual sessions are able to handle the academic rigor that high school and college offers,
but could benefit from building their executive function skills.  Participants may also work on problem solving skills (stating main and sub-problems to include inferred problems) and aspects related to the Double Empathy Problem (perspective-taking and reading emotions) that can directly impact executive function skills, social interactions and other communication skills. The EFFECT program works best if the student's social interaction skills have not impacted their everyday lives.
When the EFFECT program is run during the spring semester (beginning of February - early May), the teen participates in a weekly 1-hour virtual group and an individual 50-minute virtual session.

When the EFFECT program is run during the summer session 1 semester (end of May - early July), the semester is compressed and teens participate in a weekly 1-hour virtual session and 2, individual 50-minute virtual sessions. 
What is executive functioning?
What is Theory of Mind?
The following articles provide more information of what Theory of Mind entails: 
What is Double Empathy?