by Dennis Coates | Adolescence, Adolescent Brain, Alcohol, Critical Thinking, Drugs, Parent-child Communication, Parenting, Teen Culture, Youth Athletics
Drinking alcohol with the expressed purpose of getting “messed up”? Believe it or not, this is an activity practiced mostly by kids. Watch this brief video… What can a parent do? 1. Get the book, How Your Teen Can Grow a Smarter Brain. Then read...
by Dennis Coates | Adolescence, Adolescent Brain, Critical Thinking, Parenting
Most parents think of their child as “officially” an adolescent when they technically become a teenager on their 13th birthday. And they think their project of raising the child to adulthood is pretty much over after high school, when most of these young...
by Dennis Coates | Adolescent Brain, Critical Thinking, Programs, Teen Success
If you’ve followed my blog, you know I often write about a child’s prefrontal cortex (PFC) can be wired for basic critical thinking skills. The window of opportunity for advanced development of the PFC opens at puberty and closes sometime in the early...
by Dennis Coates | Critical Thinking, Education, Parenting Books, Personal Strength, Teen Success
It’s amazing what you see when you step outside the box. I’ve been focusing on the special challenge of raising teenagers for several years now, and I’ve been outside the box the whole time. Inside the box, you understand that you need to sacrifice...
by Dennis Coates | Adolescent Brain, Critical Thinking
I consider myself a serious thinker. But to be honest, I’m not an intellectual. I’m biased towards action. I have a Ph.D., but 95% of what I know today I learned on my own after earning that degree. So seemingly my head is full of knowledge. Some people...