Every Adult's Guide to Talking to Teens

Jane Heath is a psychology instructor at Ryerson Polytechnical
University.

This handbook is based on the author’s home and classroom experience
with adolescents, and on teens’ responses to a questionnaire she
developed. The techniques it prescribes for interacting with adolescents
are described as a compendium of the best features of the “militant”
and “child-centred” schools of thought vis-а-vis youth.
Paterson’s recommended “flexible-structural” approach blends
warmth and communication with control and discipline.

Individual chapters focus on such topics as respect, communication, and
discipline. The book sheds much light on the adolescent viewpoint and
the author is sensitive to the role that wider social issues such as
poverty and family pressures play in exacerbating the difficulties both
faced and presented by adolescents. The questionnaire that served as the
basis for much of the book’s material is included in an appendix.

While the book spreads itself a bit thin at times, it should prove
useful to both teachers and parents.