by Dennis Coates | Oct 30, 2017 | Adolescence, Adolescent Brain, Alcohol, Critical Thinking, Drugs, Mentoring, Parenting, Teen Culture, Teen Success
About the teen brain, I have some good news and some bad news. First, the good news. Nearly every adult I talk to these days has heard about the teen brain. Fifteen years ago, this was not the case. At the turn of the century, the fact that the prefrontal cortex (PFC)...
by Dennis Coates | Oct 4, 2017 | Parent-child Communication
The past, the present, and the future. Here are some things to keep in mind. The past doesn’t exist. Once you’ve experienced something, that moment is lost forever, except as a stored memory. Also, the images you’ve stored in memory are likely to be...
by Dennis Coates | Sep 21, 2017 | Adolescent Brain, Critical Thinking, Interviews, Podcasts, Teen Success
I recently had a fascinating discussion about the adolescent brain with parent coach Andrea Zacharias. If you want to know more about what I do and think about every day, listen in! We talked about my new book: How Your Teen Can Grow a Smarter Brain. More...
by Dennis Coates | Sep 18, 2017 | Adolescence, Adolescent Brain, Alcohol, Critical Thinking, Drugs, Fitness, Health & Nutrition, Parent-child Communication, Peer Pressure, Self-Esteem, Teen Culture, Teen Sex, Work, Youth Athletics
What is self-esteem, anyway? Why is it important to a growing child? Why does it turn out to be a tough issue? What can parents do to nurture stronger self-esteem? Physically, I was a late-bloomer. When I was a freshman in high school, I was the shortest boy in my...
by Dennis Coates | Aug 31, 2017 | Adolescence, Education, Parent-child Communication, Peer Pressure, Self-Esteem, Teen Culture
How much wisdom did you have when you were 13? What did you know? More to the point, what insights about life – which could have helped you a lot back then – wouldn’t come until much later? I was always considered the smartest kid in my class. I took...