by Dennis Coates | Jan 28, 2019 | Adolescence, Adolescent Brain, Critical Thinking, Education, Encouragement, Inspiring Quotes, Parenting, Personal Strength, Teen Success, Work
In my book, How Your Teen Can Grow a Smarter Brain, I explain that adolescence is a sensitive time window for developing foundation thinking skills in the prefrontal cortex and how to maximize that development. Important insights, I assure you. But establishing the...
by Dennis Coates | Dec 10, 2018 | Adolescence, Adolescent Brain, Critical Thinking, Encouragement, Parenting Books, Teen Success
I recently had a conversation with a local physician. Happily, we didn’t talk about my health. Instead, he spoke enthusiastically about his three children, two boys and a girl, all of whom have left home. He told me something unbelievable about them: all three...
by Dennis Coates | Nov 22, 2018 | Adolescence, Parent-child Communication, Parenting
Should you give advice? The answer is the same whether you’re relating to another adult or to a teenager. One of my friends has an interesting idiosyncrasy. Whenever we talk, his way of interacting with me is to give me advice. I think he does this because...
by Dennis Coates | Nov 21, 2018 | Adolescence, Adolescent Brain, Behavior Change, Critical Thinking, Parenting Books
As you may have heard, my new book, How Your Teen Can Grow a Smarter Brain, is now available on Amazon. Several people have commented on the title, that “growing a smarter brain” is a clever metaphor for the process of building vital thinking skills. I...
by Dennis Coates | Aug 27, 2018 | Adolescence, Adolescent Brain, Health & Nutrition, Self-Esteem, Teen Culture, Teen Suicide
First, a new word: “esports.” Makes you think that playing video games is a legitimate sport, something like poker, which is featured on ESPN and in the sports sections of most newspapers. So, mom and dad, maybe it’s ok, right? Dozens of small...
by Dennis Coates | Jul 30, 2018 | Adolescence, Adolescent Brain, Health & Nutrition, Parenting, Teen Culture, Teen Success
In my posts, “Video Game Addiction and Brain Damage” and “Teen Smartphones and Social Networking – Buyer Beware” I described potential threats to normal teen brain development. If you read these articles, you know there are serious...
