Research and practice combine to demonstrate benefits of social
skills training program for teens. Guest post by Gabriel
Dichter, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry at the
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. I would like to share
with the Autism Speaks community my experiences running a new
social skills clinic for teenagers at the Carolina Institute for
Developmental Disabilities in Carrboro, NC. After focusing
exclusively on brain-imaging research for a number of years, I
had the opportunity to start a group-based eight-week clinic
focused on building social skills with my colleague Lauren
Turner-Brown, PhD. Most participants are on the autism spectrum,
and the response has been remarkable and gratifying. First, a
little background. Repeatedly, families told us about their
teenagers’ pressing need for help with social skills. In 2005,
Dr. Turner-Brown, David Penn, and I conducted a small pilot
study of a new treatment designed to improve social skills in
high-functioning individuals with autism.