by Dennis Coates | Oct 26, 2015 | Adolescence, Critical Thinking, Education, Inspiring Quotes, Parenting, Personal Strength, Teen Success
Forty years ago, I was in graduate school at Duke University, in over my head, studying hard and learning as much as I could to catch up with my better-prepared classmates. It paid off – I earned my Ph.D. four years later. It was the most intense period of...
by Dennis Coates | Oct 26, 2015 | Adolescence, Parent-child Communication, Parenting Books
To be the best listener you can be, I believe you need two, closely related skills: active listening and empathy. I learned active listening in 1976, and I’ve been practicing it and writing about it ever since. The core skill in active listening is to check what...
by Dennis Coates | Oct 19, 2015 | Adolescence, Parenting, Teen Success
As we prepared to go the gym for our morning workout, my wife discovered that she had misplaced her car keys. We searched for ten minutes and finally found them in the car, still in the ignition. Unfortunately, the battery was dead because she was listening to the...
by Dennis Coates | Oct 19, 2015 | Adolescence, Inspiring Quotes, Parenting, Strong for Parenting, Teen Success
It’s been said many, many times that parenting a teenager may be the hardest thing you ever do. It can sometimes seem like a thankless, hopeless endeavor. You have your dream – to help your child grow up to be a strong, independent, happy, successful...
by Dennis Coates | Oct 12, 2015 | Adolescence, Parent-child Communication, Parenting, Strong for Parenting
You may have heard it said that “Few people are good listeners.” While this may ring true, I know you’d like to be a better listener for your teen. The benefits to your relationship are enormous. What you find out! The amazing way it strengthens the...
by Dennis Coates | Oct 12, 2015 | Adolescence, Adolescent Brain, Critical Thinking, Education, Parent-child Communication, Parenting, Parenting Books, Teen Success
These days, parents hear a lot about the “teen brain” in the popular media. The message is that the “prefrontal cortex” (PFC), the area of the brain in charge of controlling impulses, is still under construction – that this a big reason...
