by Dennis Coates | Jul 24, 2017 | Adolescence, Health & Nutrition, Peer Pressure, Teen Culture, Teen Success
If you read my post about the mixed bag of wonders/dangers of smartphones and social networking, your eyes are wide open about pornography, cyberbullying, stranger danger, sexual predators, identity theft, and sex trafficking. And yes, social networking – an...
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 | Mar 27, 2017 | Adolescence, Education, Health & Nutrition, Parent-child Communication, Parenting Books, Peer Pressure, Teen Culture, Teen Sex
One evening when I was 14, I was sitting on my bed reading a novel when my mom walked past my door. Then she came back, stood in the door, and asked me, “You know about sex, don’t you?” Her question took me by surprise. I answered, “Uh,...
by Dennis Coates | Dec 13, 2016 | Adolescent Brain, Education, Health & Nutrition, Parenting, Peer Pressure, Teen Culture
I recently spoke with a mother of three boys, ages 11, 13 and 15. She told me she and her husband plan to give all three sons video game consoles for Christmas. Of course, they’ll win a lot of “best mom and dad” points with these gifts. She and the father...
by Dennis Coates | Nov 2, 2016 | Adolescence, Guest Blog Posts, Parenting, Peer Pressure, Self-Esteem, Teen Culture
This guest post comes from Mercedes Samudio, LCSW, a parent coach who helps parents achieve dynamic parent/child relationships, ending the shame around parenting and giving parents the confidence to raise healthy children in today’s world. She is a leading parenting...
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”...
