ABSTRACT
The skills taught in PEERS® are meant to be presented in a stepwise fashion where one skill builds upon another in an organized and preconceived manner. The lessons are not intended to be modular where one picks and chooses the order or inclusion. Since each skill naturally flows into the next, the group is not appropriate for rolling admission. In other words, group members should not be joining the group partway through. If this were to happen, latecomers would be lost and unable to follow session content, buzzwords would be unfamiliar, and Homework Assignments would be confusing. Consequently, it is strongly recommended that all group members enroll starting in Session 1. With a few minor exceptions, one or two group members might be allowed to start in week 2. Newcomers should be given Social Coaching Handouts from the previous week, but providing separate individual sessions is discouraged as it might reinforce future absences by giving too much extra attention to those who were not present. Instead, content from the handout in conjunction with the repetition of instruction that often accompanies the Homework Review should be sufficient to get new group members up to speed.
