How to Say It to Teens

Talking about the most important topics of their  lives

Richard Heyman Ed.D.

Most parents are not prepared for their child to turn into a teenager. Yet when it comes about parents can suddenly find it difficult to use the right words to communicate with their children. It can be the beginning of discovering that you are out of touch with your kids.

How to Say it to Teens takes all the topics - such as contraception, pregnancy, tattoos, curfews, sex, drugs and more - which parents mean to talk to their kids about, but often fumble around for the right way to do it..

The book is divided into easy-to-read short sections on each topic, so, for instance, if you want to know more about how to handle the vexing question of ‘Clothes’, you can look it up. You will be given advice on Things to Consider, Things You Must Do, and lists of What to Say and Do as well as What Not to Say and Do. Throughout there are lists of words and phrases to use, and words and phrases to avoid. It will come as a shock to some parents to see words they frequently use in the list of ‘Words to Avoid’, and so reading these guidelines will make you take stock of the way you talk to your adolescents.

I am sure any parent of a teenager (or a pre-teen) will find many other things to ponder over in this book, and putting some of the advice into practice should improve family communications all around. My concern is that it is the parents who don’t need this book who will buy it, while those who do need it will go on using phrases like ‘You’ll dress the way I want you to’ ‘I don’t care what your friends wear’ ‘You are ungrateful’ and ‘I give up on you.’

Do you know how to talk to your kids about smoking? peer pressure? or respect? No? Then take a lesson from Dr Heyman, who is professor of communication and education at the University of Calgary and the father of three children, and read How to Say It to Teens.

© Jill Curtis 2002

Prentice Hall Press    $16.00  paperback   ISBN 0735201889

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