Over the course of the past few months, we have designed a social group for middle school age teens experiencing struggles socially in order to provide a safe place for them to get to know others in a relaxed setting. The goal of the group is to help those who may be experiencing struggles with finding a core group of friends at school, and give them a group they can always come back to, as well as providing them with relationship building skills to use not just at school, but throughout the rest of their lives. The group meets once a week to explore a friendship building skill, engage in partner and group activities, and debrief with a snack. As group facilitators, we try to remain involved as little as possible, as we do not wish for the group to feel forced, or like group therapy. Parents are also offered a debrief session during which they learn about the activities of the day and ideas for generalizing skills. Facilitators are trained and supported by a clinician well-versed in social thinking and emotional intelligence promoting group activities. Presenters will share information about the program design and group outcomes.

The audience will gain insights about:

• addressing the social needs of shy middle schoolers from a range of professionals who work with neuro-diverse children and teenagers (obtained through structured interviews);
• considerations for designing a peer-to-peer social support model of intervention;
• pitfalls to avoid when designing your own peer-to-peer social group;
• benefits and gains unique to this model.