Why Do They Act That Way?: A Survival Guide to the Adolescent Brain for You and Your Teen » (Reprint)

David Walsh, PhD, is one of the world’s leading authorities on children, teens, parenting, family life, and the impact of technology on children’s health and development. In 1995, he founded the internationally renowned National Institute on Media and the Family, which he led until 2010. He is currently launching a new company called "Mind Positive Parenting" to coincide with the release of Parenting with the Brain in Mind. Dr. Walsh has presented workshops to parents, educators, and professionals throughout the world. Dr. Walsh has also authored columns on numerous topics and his articles have appeared in newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and others. A frequent guest on national radio and television, Dr. Walsh has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, Good Morning America, The CBS Early Show, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, Dateline NBC, ABC’s 20/20, National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and Morning Edition, and has been featured on three nationally broadcast PBS specials. He has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Council on Family Relation’s Friend of the Family Award.

He is on the faculty of the University of Minnesota, is a senior advisor at Search Institute and has published many articles in the professional and general press. He is active in many professional associations, is a licensed psychologist and has been the recipient of awards and an honorary doctorate. He and his wife Monica live in Minneapolis, have three adult children and two grandchildren.

In this national bestseller, acclaimed, award-winning psychologist Dr. David Walsh explains exactly what happens to the human brain on the path from childhood into adolescence and adulthood. Revealing the latest scientific findings in easy-to-understand terms, Dr. Walsh shows why moodiness, quickness to anger and to take risks, miscommunication, fatigue, territoriality, and other familiar teenage behavior problems are so common -- all are linked to physical changes and growth in the adolescent brain.

Why Do They Act That Way? is the first book to explain the changes in teens' brains and show parents how to use this information to understand, communicate with, and stay connected to their kids. Through real-life stories, Dr. Walsh makes sense of teenagers' many mystifying, annoying, and even outright dangerous behavioral difficulties and provides realistic solutions for dealing with everyday as well as severe challenges. Dr. Walsh's techniques include, among others: sample dialogues that help teens and parents talk civilly and constructively with each other, behavioral contracts, and Parental Survival Kits that provide practical advice for dealing with issues like curfews, disrespectful language and actions, and bullying. With this arsenal of strategies, parents can help their kids learn to control impulses, manage erratic behavior, cope with their changing bodies, and, in effect, develop a second brain.

Library Journal

Here are two different approaches to help parents understand adolescent behavior. Walsh, a clinical psychologist with experience as a high school teacher, focuses on how adolescent brain development and chemistry lead to troubling behaviors. He shows parents how to respond constructively to traits like risk taking, sullenness, and refusal to follow rules. An engaging narrative style and insight into adolescents' minds make Walsh's book enjoyable as well as informative; recommended for public libraries and for academic libraries at schools with clinical psychology programs. Psychiatrist Paul (When Kids Are Mad, Not Bad) explores a wider range of problems, e.g., serious disorders like schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder, in a reference format. Sections include "Feelings," "Behavior," and "Drugs," which are subdivided into chapters on particular disorders or situations. The book supplies cross references by chapter and contact information for mental health organizations, but references to bibliographic resources would have made it more useful, given the necessarily limited coverage of so many different issues. Some readers might find Paul overly willing to recommend medication for teenagers with common diagnoses such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), too easily dismissing the possibility of misdiagnosis and the risk of medicating young people unnecessarily. While Paul's book is not as outstanding overall as Walsh's, it does provide parents with basic information on mental illnesses not covered in Walsh's book and is recommended for public libraries. Susan E. Pease, Univ. of Massachusetts Lib., Amherst Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

One: Making Sense of Adolescence

Two: A Guided Tour of Their Brains

Three: Why Adolescents Are Impulsive

Four: Risky Business: Helping Teens Put on the Brakes

Five: What We Have Here Is a Failure to Communicate

Six: Male and Female Brains: Sexual Stereotyping and Sexual Identity

Seven: Love, Sex, and the Adolescent Brain

Eight: Monkey Wrenches in the Brain: Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs

Nine: Adolescents and Media

Ten: The Story Behind Tired Teens

Eleven: When Things Go Wrong in the Brain: Adolescent Mental Illness

Twelve: The Psychological and Social Dimensions of Adolescence

Thirteen: The Importance of Connection and Guidance

Fourteen: In Conclusion

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index