Your Predictable Adolescent

Is there any time in our developmental stage as challenging or provoking as adolescence? Listen to some parents and teachers and one hears a preponderance of doom-and-gloom scenarios. But according to expert and physician Dr. William A. Long, Jr., the difficulties of adolescence are not so clear-cut, nor is the future so bleak. In his important book, Your Predictable Adolescent, Dr. Long delivers a goldmine of information and guidance regarding these age-specific children, and readers will be as heartened as they are fascinated by the author's research-based and often humorous perceptions. Dr. Long, bringing to this project decades of dedication to the well-being and emotional development of adolescents, reminds us to be alert to several key points. For example, adolescents are human beings and their development is a process, not an illness. He also reminds us that this difficult stage is finite and will be survived by the child and associated adults, if growth is allowed to proceed at its normal pace. Another salient point is that the very nature of adolescence means ambivalence and conflict: ups and downs are to be expected. Readers wishing to understand more fully the many facets of adolescence will find in this book an energy driven as much by practical and highly useful approaches as by the author's evident dedication to his subject. From emotional maturity to the passive and/or aggressive nature of the adolescent, phobic traits to impulsivity and obsession, the intellect to the adolescent's position in family and community, Dr. Long explains, clarifies, and in so many ways reassures. With this book in hand, parents will discover new ways to view their child, and will recognize new and creative communication pathways that lead to less conflict and more positive interactions.