by Dennis Coates | Nov 1, 2021 | Alcohol, Behavior Change, Drugs, Education, Parent-child Communication, Parenting, Teen Driving, Teen Success, Uncategorized
All my writing these days is about how you talk to your child. But parents communicate in other, very powerful ways. When my two sons were small boys, I had never heard the term “parenting.” I knew nothing about techniques or skills that would make me a...
by Dennis Coates | Mar 22, 2019 | Adolescent Brain, Fitness, Guest Blog Posts, Health & Nutrition, Teen Success, Uncategorized
What’s happening as an adolescent child matures toward adulthood is complicated, so it’s important to know what’s going on. But when parents are given insightful information, their first question is: What should I do about it? In this post I share a...
by Dennis Coates | Feb 25, 2019 | Adolescence, Adolescent Brain, Alcohol, Critical Thinking, Drugs, Parenting, Parenting Books, Personal Strength, Teen Culture, Teen Success, Uncategorized
I recently had breakfast with some friends who have a graduating high school senior. He’s a great kid who wants to be a speech therapist and has been accepted into the right university for that training. Also, I pointed out that in addition to this wonderful...
by Dennis Coates | Jul 31, 2018 | Adolescent Brain, Parenting Books, Uncategorized
A “feral child” is one who spent a significant part of early childhood isolated from civilization, often raised by wild animals. A consistent theme of these stories is that the foundlings had no language or social skills, which are normally learned early...
by Dennis Coates | Jul 13, 2016 | Guest Blog Posts, Parenting, Personal Strength, Uncategorized
This guest post comes from parent coach Fern Weis. After teaching middle school for 13 years, she trained as a life coach and founded her business, Your Family Matters, in 2008. Since then she’s been teaching and supporting parents on the parent-teen relationship....
by Dennis Coates | Mar 11, 2016 | Parent-child Communication, Parenting, Uncategorized
What every parent knows: unconditional love is the foundation. But child misbehavior can temporarily make it hard to access this love, much less express it. In its place, your instinctive negative reaction: frustration, fatigue, disappointment, discouragement, hurt,...