David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
Communication and Your 13- to 18-year-old
June 2, 2004, KidsHealth.org
During this period, teens spend much of the day outside the home - at school or at after-school activities and with peers. Take time every day to talk with your teen to share opinions, ideas, and information.
Here are a few tips to help you communicate with your growing teen:
o Make time during the day or evening to hear about your teen's activities; be sure that he knows you are actively interested and listening carefully.
o Remember to talk with your child, not at him.
o Ask questions that go beyond "yes" or "no" answers to prompt more developed conversation.
o Take advantage of time during car trips or standing in line at the supermarket to talk with your teen.
o Provide activities that offer opportunities to improve communication skills, such as attending or engaging in sporting and school events, playing games, and talking about current events.
Typical Vocabulary and Communication Patterns
Adolescents essentially communicate in an adult manner, with increasing maturity throughout high school. Teens comprehend abstract language, such as idioms, figurative language, and metaphors. Explanations may become more figurative and less literal. Literacy and its relationship to cognition, linguistic competency, reading, writing, and listening is the primary focus in this age group. Teens should be able to process texts and abstract meaning, relate word meanings and contexts, understand punctuation, and form complex syntactic structures.
What Should I Do if I Suspect a Problem?
You should have ongoing communication with your teen's teachers about overall language skills and progress. If your teen's teachers suspect a language-based learning disability, comprehensive testing will be necessary. This can include a hearing test, psychoeducational assessment (standardized testing to assess a child's learning style as well as cognitive processes), and speech-language evaluation.
If your teen has a specific communication difficulty, such as persistent stuttering, he should be referred to the school speech-language pathologist. If your teen has already been referred to the school speech-language pathologist (an expert who evaluates and treats speech and language disorders), you should continue to routinely communicate with the therapist and your teen's teachers about goals, language activities to practice at home, and your teen's progress. Tutoring for specific subjects may be helpful.
Typical Communication Problems
In most cases, language difficulties will have been identified before this time. However, subtle problems may be indicated by increasing academic troubles.
Speech articulation problems are generally identified and treated well before adolescence. Persistent stuttering and vocal-quality problems such as hoarseness, breathiness, or raspiness may require a medical evaluation by an otolaryngologist (an ear, nose, and throat specialist).
June 2, 2004, KidsHealth.org
During this period, teens spend much of the day outside the home - at school or at after-school activities and with peers. Take time every day to talk with your teen to share opinions, ideas, and information.
Here are a few tips to help you communicate with your growing teen:
o Make time during the day or evening to hear about your teen's activities; be sure that he knows you are actively interested and listening carefully.
o Remember to talk with your child, not at him.
o Ask questions that go beyond "yes" or "no" answers to prompt more developed conversation.
o Take advantage of time during car trips or standing in line at the supermarket to talk with your teen.
o Provide activities that offer opportunities to improve communication skills, such as attending or engaging in sporting and school events, playing games, and talking about current events.
Typical Vocabulary and Communication Patterns
Adolescents essentially communicate in an adult manner, with increasing maturity throughout high school. Teens comprehend abstract language, such as idioms, figurative language, and metaphors. Explanations may become more figurative and less literal. Literacy and its relationship to cognition, linguistic competency, reading, writing, and listening is the primary focus in this age group. Teens should be able to process texts and abstract meaning, relate word meanings and contexts, understand punctuation, and form complex syntactic structures.
What Should I Do if I Suspect a Problem?
You should have ongoing communication with your teen's teachers about overall language skills and progress. If your teen's teachers suspect a language-based learning disability, comprehensive testing will be necessary. This can include a hearing test, psychoeducational assessment (standardized testing to assess a child's learning style as well as cognitive processes), and speech-language evaluation.
If your teen has a specific communication difficulty, such as persistent stuttering, he should be referred to the school speech-language pathologist. If your teen has already been referred to the school speech-language pathologist (an expert who evaluates and treats speech and language disorders), you should continue to routinely communicate with the therapist and your teen's teachers about goals, language activities to practice at home, and your teen's progress. Tutoring for specific subjects may be helpful.
Typical Communication Problems
In most cases, language difficulties will have been identified before this time. However, subtle problems may be indicated by increasing academic troubles.
Speech articulation problems are generally identified and treated well before adolescence. Persistent stuttering and vocal-quality problems such as hoarseness, breathiness, or raspiness may require a medical evaluation by an otolaryngologist (an ear, nose, and throat specialist).
