About this item
Trying to convince a middle schooler to listen to you can be exasperating. Indeed, it can feel like the best option is not to talk! But keeping kids safe - and prepared for all the times when you can't be the angel on their shoulder - is about having the right conversations at the right time. From a brain growth and emotional readiness perspective, there is no better time for this than their tween years, right up to when they enter high school. Distilling Michelle Icard's decades of experience working with families, Fourteen Talks by Age Fourteen focuses on big, thorny topics such as friendship, sexuality, impulsivity, and technology, as well as unexpected conversations about creativity, hygiene, money, privilege, and contributing to the family. Icard outlines a simple, memorable, and family-tested formula for the best approach to these essential talks, the BRIEF Model: egin peacefully, elate to your child, Interview to collect information, Echo what you're hearing, and give Feedback.
About the Author
Remember middle school? Are you cringing? I didn't like it much myself the first time around. I fell into the pit of my own adolescent despair when, as a 7th grader wearing oversized glasses and off-brand jeans, my two best friends decided they were better off without me and went their own way. This left me stranded in my multicolored socks to fend for myself in the jungle of middle school. Now I help kids, their parents, and teachers reframe how they view early adolescence. My first book, Middle School Makeover: Improving The Way You And Your Child Experience Middle School (2015) , is a primer for the social and emotional changes you and your kids will navigate when mid-life meets middle school under one roof. My second book, Fourteen (Talks) by (Age) Fourteen, will be published in February, 2021 by Harmony/Random House and covers the fourteen essential conversations you need to have with your child before they start high school. Learn more about my work at MichelleIcard.com.
