Inside the Teenage Brain: Parenting a Work in Progress / Edition 2

by Sheryl Feinstein, Eric Jensen

Overview

Teenagers are perplexing, intriguing, and spirited creatures. In an attempt to discover the secrets to their thoughts and actions, parents have tried talking, cajoling, and begging them for answers. The result has usually been just more confusion. But new and exciting light is being shed on these mysterious young adults.

What was once thought to be hormones run amuck can now be explained with modern medical technology. MRI and PET scans view the human brain while it is alive and functioning. To no one's surprise, the teenage brain is under heavy construction! These discoveries are helping parents understand the (until now) unexplainable teenager. Neuroscience can help parents adjust to the highs and lows of teenage behavior. Typically, this transformation is a prickly proposition for both teens and their families, but the trials and tribulations of adolescence give teenagers a second chance to develop and create the brain they will take into adulthood.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781607091189
Publisher:	R&L Education
Publication date:	12/16/2009
Pages:	148
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Sheryl Feinstein is associate professor at Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She consults at a correctional facility for adolescent boys and at a separate site for emotionally and behaviorally disturbed adolescents in Minnesota. She is a former teacher, curriculum coordinator, and director of a high school alternative program.

Table of Contents

Foreword   Eric Jensen     vii
Acknowledgments     ix
The Teenage Brain: A Work in Progress     1
Parenting Styles: What Kind of Parent Are You?     13
Strategies That Work and Don't Work with Teenagers     22
Triggering Misbehavior     40
Social Life: The Teen Scene     46
Surviving Your Teenager's Emotions     60
Physical Changes: Under Construction     73
Getting an Education     82
The Family Rules     89
Technology: The Medium and the Message     100
Teens at Risk     110
Parenting Glossary     133
References     139
Index     147
About the Author     151

Editorial Reviews

Feinstein provides practical advice, but what makes her book particularly interesting is the insight on how the adolescent brain functions.

Booklist

This book is right on target when it comes to understanding the teen brain. Using emerging research, Feinstein translates the science into practical strategies that work! Every parent of an adolescent should read this book. Better yet, read it before your child becomes an adolescent—be prepared!

Marilee Sprenger

Reading this book was a delight—the result of the author’s weaving a fast-flowing, persuasive narrative from several strands of information and reasoning. Those strands include recent research on adolescent thought processes, a parent’s experience with raising teenagers, interviews with adolescents, and observations of adolescents interacting with adults and peers. The conversational writing style features well-reasoned suggestions about productive ways for adults—especially parents—to treat teens. I’m convinced that the author truly knows what she is talking about.

R. Murray Thomas

In this timely and compelling book, Feinstein has integrated the wisdom of psychology and evidence from brain-based research to offer insight into the world of the digital generation of teenagers and food for thought for parenting teenagers. Strategies for communicating and parenting teenagers are illustrated through lively examples and supported by research that is presented in a down-to-earth and readable style.

Linda S. Behar-Horenstein

The author explores the topic that is urgent and timely in the rise of the new millennium. The book is intelligently crafted and full of wisdom and useful admonitions. Parents, educators, psychologists—all who are in any way deals with teenagers can benefit from it. A big and engrossing book. Great!

Ilghiz M. Sinagatullin

Sheryl Feinstein has written a book that every parent of a teenager should read. It is filled with practical information, illuminating examples, and—most important—hope. Readers will walk away not only with tools to feel confident in their role as parents but also with appreciation for their teenage child.

Susan Eva Porter

Feinstein provides practical advice, but what makes her book particularly interesting is the insight on how the adolescent brain functions.

Booklist