by Dennis Coates | Oct 18, 2016 | Adolescence, Adolescent Brain, Critical Thinking, Education, Mentoring, Teen Success, Work
It was the summer of 1960, and I was 15. Elvis’ active duty service in the Army was behind him, and John Kennedy was running for President. My father, a chief warrant officer in the Army, had been reassigned to Germany and our family would follow six months later when...
by Dennis Coates | Sep 28, 2016 | Adolescence, Adolescent Brain, Alcohol, Critical Thinking, Drugs, Education, Encouragement, Parenting, Teen Culture, Teen Success
In a separate post, I quoted Dr. Jay Giedd, the pioneering brain researcher who discovered that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is still under development during a child’s adolescence, that this is the “smart” area of the brain, and that wiring the PFC...
by Dennis Coates | Sep 26, 2016 | Adolescent Brain, Alcohol, Drugs, Education, Teen Success
For readers who are unfamiliar with Dr. Jay Giedd’s work, he entered the Residency Program at the Menninger School of Psychiatry, transferred to the Barrow Neurological Institute and completed his residency in psychiatry in 1989. He was a postgraduate fellow in...
by Dennis Coates | Aug 15, 2016 | Adolescent Brain, Education, Work
When your child gets involved in an activity, it will probably involve learning certain skills. Home/life skills? Relationship skills? Athletic? Musical? Artistic? Mechanical? Construction? Academic? Thinking? Managing? If some of the skills your child has to learn...
by Dennis Coates | Jul 28, 2016 | Adolescent Brain, Education, Fitness, Guest Blog Posts, Teen Success, Youth Athletics
Kids learn better when movement and exercise are a part of their day. This guest post comes to us from Lizzy Bullock, writer and swim instructor for AquaGear. Children in a school setting are often told to “stop fidgeting,” to “sit still,” and...
by Dennis Coates | Jul 25, 2016 | Adolescence, Adolescent Brain, Critical Thinking, Education, Mentoring, Parenting, Parenting Books, Peer Pressure, Teen Culture, Teen Success
I have a 15-year-old nephew. The last time I saw him he was doing what most kids his age are doing: sitting on a couch browsing his smartphone. At the time I was thinking that a lot of unused brain cell connections were in the process of being “pruned”...
