The 14 week programme comprises of weekly sessions of 90 minutes for motivated adolescents who are interested in developing skills to build and maintain friendships. The programme conducts concurrent parent sessions with a focus on training parents and carers as social coaches.
During each group session teens are taught important social skills, and provided with opportunities to practice skills during the socialization activities. Parents are also trained to enhance their teen's social skills to develop friendships by providing feedback to their teen within weekly socialization homework activities.
Weekly topics of instruction include:-
- How to use appropriate conversational skills
- How to find "common interests"
- How to use humour appropriately
- How to enter and exit conversations with peers
- How to be a good host during “social gatherings”
- How to choose appropriate friends
- How to be a good sport
- How to handle arguments and disagreements
- How to change reputations
- How to handle rejection
- How to handle rumours and gossip
