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 | 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 | Jul 21, 2017 | Adolescence, Adolescent Brain, Critical Thinking, Parent-child Communication, Parenting, Parenting Videos, Peer Pressure, Teen Culture, Teen Success, Teen Suicide
Today, most phone calls are made using wireless smartphones, relayed by Wi-Fi devices in your home or distant radio towers. What we used to call telephones are now called landlines, and these are steadily disappearing. The smartphone technology that people carry in...
by Dennis Coates | Jul 17, 2017 | Adolescence, Adolescent Brain, Critical Thinking, Teen Success
If you’ve read about the teen brain, you know it’s mostly about a child’s final stage of brain development, during which the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is wired for foundation critical thinking skills. In one respect, wiring the PFC is like every other...
by Dennis Coates | May 10, 2017 | Adolescent Brain, Critical Thinking, Education, Fitness, Parent-child Communication, Parenting, Personal Strength, Self-Esteem, Work
Parenting Fundamentals 1-5 were presented in Part One. Here are 6-10: 6. Help your child build a strong work ethic. When I was 15 I mowed my aunt’s lawn with a borrowed motorless reel push mower in the middle of a Kansas summer. Whew! She was so impressed with...
