Apr 5, 2021
Michelle Icard is a member of the Today show parenting team and NBC News Learn. In this episode we discuss her new book, "Fourteen Talks by Age Fourteen: The Essential Conversations You Need to Have with Your Kids Before They Start High School". Michelle shares key ways you can help your child through the emotional, physical, and social challenges of tweendom, and how to communicate in a way that builds trust and emotional stability in the relationship.
Connect with Michelle at https://michelleicard.com,on Facebook @LessStressedMiddleSchoolParents and IG @michelleicard
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ABOUT THE BOOK:
The 14 essential conversations to have with your tween and early
teenager to prepare them for the emotional, physical, and social
challenges ahead, including scripts and advice to keep the
communication going and stay connected during this critical
developmental window.
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: Begin
peacefully, Relate to your child, Interview to collect
information, Echo what you're hearing, and give Feedback.
With wit and compassion, she also helps you get over the most
common hurdles in talking to tweens, including:
- What phrases invite connection and which irritate kids or scare them off
- The best places, times, and situations in which to initiate talks
- How to keep kids interested, open, and engaged in conversation
- How to exit these chats in a way that keeps kids wanting more
Like a Rosetta Stone for your tween's confounding language, FOURTEEN TALKS BY AGE FOURTEEN is an essential communication guide to helping your child through the emotional, physical, and social challenges ahead and, ultimately, toward teenage success.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
The author of Middle School Makeover, her work has been featured in the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, Redbook, Time, and People. Her leadership curriculum for middle schoolers, Athena's Path and Hero's Pursuit, have been implemented at schools across the U.S., and her summer camp curriculum is offered at more than 20 camps each summer. She lives with her family in Charlotte, North Carolina.