Parenting Adolescents

Drawing on her research, knowledge, and clinical experience, internationally respected neurologist--and mother of two boys--Frances E. Jensen, MD, offers a revolutionary look at the adolescent brain, providing remarkable insights that translate into practical advice both for parents and teenagers.

Dr. Michael Carr-Gregg is a leading authority on teenage behavior. Surviving Adolescents is the sensible, sanity-saving guide every household needs. Young people today enter puberty earlier than ever before and leave home later. The good news is that teenagers aren't impossible to live with, especially if parents adopt the common-sense strategies set out in this book.

Contrary to what was once believed, ADHD that starts earlier in childhood usually persists into the teen years. Yet even experienced parents are often caught unawares by the fresh challenges that adolescence brings. This book is one of the few to address ADHD in the context of teen friendships, dating, curfews, sports, and extracurricular activities. It also offers practical advice from a leading psychologist on determining readiness to drive and instilling good homework and study habits.

Are you a parent or educator struggling to decipher the complex adolescent brain? Do you find yourself bewildered by their sudden mood swings and rebellious acts, and you wish you could understand how their minds operate so that you can see things from their perspective to foster more harmonious interactions? Relax and let this guide break down the adolescent psyche for you!

On the surface, capable teenage boys may look lazy. But dig a little deeper, writes child psychologist Adam Price in He's Not Lazy, and you'll often find conflicted boys who want to do well in middle and high school but are afraid to fail and so do not try. This audiobook can help you become an ally with your son as he discovers greater self-confidence and accepts responsibility for his future.

Being the parent of a smart child is great - until your son or daughter starts asking whether global warming is real, if you are going to die, and what will happen if they don't get into college. Kids who are advanced intellectually often let their imaginations run wild and experience fears beyond their years. So what can you do to help? In Why Smart Kids Worry, Allison Edwards guides you through the mental and emotional process of where your child's fears come from and why they are so hard to move past. Edwards focuses on how to parent a child who is both smart and anxious.

Between the ages of 12 and 24, the brain changes in important and often maddening ways. It’s no wonder that many parents approach their child’s adolescence with fear and trepidation. According to renowned neuropsychiatrist Daniel Siegel, however, if parents and teens can work together to form a deeper understanding of the brain science behind all the tumult, they will be able to turn conflict into connection and form a deeper understanding of one another. In Brainstorm, Siegel illuminates how brain development affects teenagers’ behaviour and relationships.

Healing Self-Injury provides desperately-needed guidance to parents and others who love a young person struggling with self-injury. First and foremost, adolescent psychologists Janis Whitlock and Elizabeth Lloyd-Richardson believe that parents must appreciate how important their role is in their child's recovery; there is a lot that parents can do to support their self-injuring children. This book is a must-have for parents who want to assist in their child's recovery, as well as for anyone who lives with, works with, or cares about self-injuring youth and their families.

In this groundbreaking book, psychologist Ted Zeff explores the unique challenges of sensitive boys, showing parents, educators, and mentors how to help sensitive boys grow into strong, happy, and confident men. Dr. Zeff offers practical advice on how to help your son increase his self-esteem and thrive in the family, at school, with friends, and in sports. 

If your child is between the ages of nine and twelve, you are in the throes of the 'between' years. Not quite a child and not yet a teenager, tweens embody a very specific stage of development that once understood will revolutionise the way you parent, educate and support those in your care. In Tweens, award-winning parenting educator Michelle Mitchell explains that this is the most rapid period of development since toddlerhood. Right now, before the full pressures of high school hit, you have a window of opportunity that can change the trajectory of adolescence and beyond.

Parenting teenagers can be hard. Maybe you already know that. The question is, does adolescence really need to be a frustrating time for parents and teenagers? If your child isn't a teenager yet, can you make preparations now to avoid many of the pitfalls parents of adolescents go through? With so much information and differing viewpoints, how can a parent really know that they are "doing it right"?

In an all too familiar scenario, played out in millions of homes every day, children who grow up in addictive families abide by certain rules: don't talk, don't trust, don't feel. The rigid survival roles and youthful coping behaviors they take on, such as the responsible child, the adjuster, the placater, and the acting-out child can eventually contribute to problems of depression, loneliness, and addiction in adulthood.

In teenagers, powerful emotions are the rule, not the exception. Unfortunately, many of today's parents now regard their teens' negative feelings as disruptive, dangerous, or diagnosable, thanks to the rise of the wellness industry and the widespread use of psychotropic drugs. To make matters worse, the global pandemic, academic pressure, social media stress, and a bleak environmental future have left today's teenagers feeling overwhelmed. This book gives parents the science-based information they need to guide their teens through a challenging developmental phase during challenging times.

The author of 21 Days to a Happier Family, Dr Justin Coulson, on raising kids who'll bounce back from adversity and challenging times. Have you ever watched your child give up too quickly and easily, moaning 'I can't'. Perhaps your child resists going to school because they don't like their teacher or their friend rejected them. Maybe they failed in a sporting contest or an exam. One of the most frequent questions Kidspot parenting expert Dr Coulson is asked is 'How can I help my child become resilient?'

In Free to Learn, developmental psychologist Peter Gray argues that our children, if free to pursue their own interests through play, will not only learn all they need to know but will do so with energy and passion. Children come into this world burning to learn, equipped with the curiosity, playfulness, and sociability to direct their own education. Yet we have squelched such instincts in a school model originally developed to indoctrinate, not to promote intellectual growth.

Being a good parent is one of the most difficult, yet most rewarding, jobs a person can have in his or her lifetime. Being the parent of a teen is an especially daunting phase of the journey. As parents begin to notice the significant changes that come with adolescence (physical changes brought about by puberty, the constant angst and moodiness, and of course the classic eye-rolling and the I-know-it-all attitude), they wonder just what happened to their happy, sweet, and affectionate young boy or girl.

Why America's sons are underachieving, and what we can do about it. Something is happening to boys today. From kindergarten to college, American boys are, on average, less resilient and less ambitious than they were a mere 20 years ago. The gender gap in college attendance and graduation rates has widened dramatically. In Boys Adrift, Dr. Leonard Sax delves into the scientific literature and draws on more than 20 years of clinical experience to explain why boys and young men are failing in school and disengaged at home.

Dr Michael Carr-Gregg believes that too many Australian boys have got it too easy - and the result is a generation of ‘boofheads’: boys with huge egos who think they are too good to stack the dishwasher or turn up to school. They expect the world and give little in return. But things are about to change. From the author of the groundbreaking Australian best seller The Princess Bitchface Syndrome and researcher Elly Robinson comes this essential companion book for boys.

Why are certain people so incredibly great at what they do? Most of us think we know the answer - but we’re almost always wrong. That’s important, because if we’re wrong on this crucial question, then we have zero chance of getting significantly better at anything we care about. Happily, the real source of great performance is no longer a mystery. Bringing together extensive scientific research, best-selling author Geoff Colvin shows where we go wrong and what actually makes world-class performers so remarkable.

Very few families are perfect. But looking from the outside in, through conversations in the grocery store or clicking through social media, often times it seems we are the only ones struggling with raising our kids or aligning with our spouses on parenting. The reality is that so many families struggle. Vicki Hoefle, three-time author, parenting coach, and sought-after speaker, offers a fresh, practical roadmap for achievable family - and marital - harmony and happiness.