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Social Skills Groups

PEERS® Youth Social Skills Group (ages 13-17)

September 14, 2022 - December 14, 2022

Wednesdays from 5:00pm - 6:30pm

We also offer social skills groups based on the PEERS®(Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills) Curriculum (Laugeson, 2014) for adolescents. PEERS® is an evidence-based friendship training program for middle school and high school students who are diagnosed with ASD or related disabilities and have primarily difficulties with making and keeping friends. During weekly sessions, skills are taught in a small-group lesson format with opportunities to practice with the peers in the group.

An eligibility assessment, including an interview with your teen, will be conducted in order to determine if your teen meets the pre-requisite criteria to join the social skills group. This assessment is essential to identify if your child displays the prerequisite skills to learn within a group setting. Your child should also display motivation to learn the skills for making and keeping friends.

The sessions will be conducted in a small group format with 1 lead instructor and 1 assistant instructor. 

The groups will take place at our clinic in Toronto at 250 Carlaw Ave, Unit 102. 

The goals of the program include:

  • Trading information
  • Conversational skills
  • Electronic communication
  • Choosing appropriate friends
  • Appropriate use of humor
  • Peer entry and exit strategies
  • Get-togethers
  • Good sportsmanship
  • Handling teasing, bullying, and bad reputation
  • Handling arguments and disagreements
  • Handling rumours and gossip

What we offer:

  • One 90-minute sessions weekly, for 14 weeks
  • 60-minute parent meetings via Zoom
  • Curriculum based learning plan
  • Opportunities to connect and interact with all youth within the program
  • Supervision from a BCBA, BCBA-D, or Registered Psychologist

Commitment from parents:

  • Attendance at parent group meetings
  • Participation in homework or parent training opportunities
  • Provide coaching in socialization opportunities during the week
  • Ongoing communication about challenges, concerns or progress

Contact Us to Register or to Learn More


Dalton Associates (DA) and Launch Behavioural Health acknowledge that we are situated on Turtle Island, that has been inhabited by Indigenous Peoples from the beginning. As a settler-owned organization, we are always working on de-colonizing our practices and offering mental health services that reflect a wholistic approach to health and wellness. Our clients come from a variety of backgrounds, and include First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples. We want to do more than make a difference at an individual level: we aspire to support a societal shift in the way that mental health is addressed and cared for, and we believe that a cross-cultural approach, bringing Indigenous worldviews to the forefront, is necessary to help break the system and rebuild it in a way that promotes healthy wellbeing for future generations. We are actively engaged in changing the landscape of mental health care in Ontario, by augmenting (and compensating) the voices and experiences of Indigenous knowledge keepers, and by incorporating Indigenous values and teachings in our program models.