EDCI 597Middle Grades Philosophy, Organization and Climate

Book Review 2009Jenny Johnson

WHY Do They Act That Way?

David Walsh, Ph.D.

Feeling hopeless?Is your teenager impulsive, unpredictable

and frustrating? Do they have mood swings and temper tantrums?

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Do you want to understand your teenager better?

Do you need better forms of communicating with them?

Do you need help understanding the development of teenage brains?

This book has the answers! Dr. Walsh can provide you with the answers to all of these questions and more!

Dr. Walsh has the experience to understand your situation and give you the advice you want and need!

David Walsh, Ph.D., has extensive background and experience in dealing with adolescents. He was a high school teacher for 10 years, coached both boys and girls sports for over 20 years, became a high school counselor, and after receiving his doctorate he became a director at a children’s and adolescent’s mental health and chemical dependency clinic going on 20 years. He is currently the President of a foundation he created called National Institute on Media and the Family.

What You will find when reading this book:

You will find that you are NOT the only one going through this. Adolescent years are tough for everyone included.

You will find what is appropriate and healthy for the child.

You will find out not only WHY kids act as they do, but how to cope with it and how to find strategies that work.

What you will find when you read this book, continued…

A parent survival kit for each chapter

A reflection section for each chapter

Examples of real life stories and how the author reacted to them.

Specific Content: Tour of the Brains, Why are adolescents impulsive, How to communicate, Sexual Stereotyping and identity, Love, Sex, Alcohol and Drugs in relation to the adolescent brain, adolescent mental illness, and the importance of connection and guidance.

A Parent Survival KitA Parent survival kit is located at the end

of the chapters, and it contains questions that allow you to assess yourself and see how prepared you are in each particular chapter/category. As you read the information in the chapter, you will learn how to be better equipped in that specific area.

A reflection section is at the end of the chapters, and this provides a moment to reflect back on your current coping strategies and compare it to what you just read/learned and allows you to predict how you will react in the future or

what you would change for next time.

Dr. David Walsh suggests that adolescents have many things to face:

They have to deal with peer pressure They have to deal with wildly changing moods They have to figure out what their values are going to be They have to get through school They have to figure out how to plan for their future They have to handle sexually maturing bodies They have to try to handle powerful emotions They must fit into a complex social network

And the list goes on…. To help them manage the list of things they must face, you as a

parent, need to maintain perspective, remain balanced, and keep a peace of

mind.

“You can keep your own sanity and composure in

the face of teenage emotional and behavioral upheavals.”

Dr. David Walsh, Ph.D.

“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority;

they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter

before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.”

Socrates, Fifth Century B.C.