The Handbook Preparing for the Journey through Adolescence: A Handbook for Teens makes adolescents aware, in a down-to-earth manner, of the hardships that await them in those trying, though exciting years. It deals in detail with the challenges that face adolescents. The Handbook aims at helping adolescents understand themselves and seeks to equip them to cope with the pressure that awaits. The Handbook goes further to help adolescents understand their parents within the context of parenting. Guidance is provided for adolescents to focus on and prepare for the world of work which sits on their horizon. An interesting list of Principles for life and a comprehensive list of South African resources are provided to facilitate access to professional help. A stunning, uplifting, and inspiring book, that is hugely comprehensive and impressive. It is impressively and clearly set out, with pertinent questions at the end of each section. It is easy to read with some very gut- wrenching and powerful chapters. I cannot see how anybody can walk away from it unmoved, and unchanged in their direction in life, at least to some extent. If the advice given is taken, many young people will lead productive, responsible, wholesome lives that will bring them true happiness. BRENDA GEORGE Freelance Editor, Pietermatrizburg, South Africa This book could not have come at a better time. It offers sound factual information, based on principles and values on which the young can base their choices, and enter adult life with a set of values that will endure and lead to true happiness. DR. R B R HAWKES Medical Doctor, Durban, South Africa

The Handbook Preparing Your Child for the Journey Through Adolescence makes parents aware of and seeks to help to understand the hardships that await all adolescents in those trying, though exciting years. It goes further to help parents understand their children in totality, to guide parents on how to invest in their children while their children are still young in order to equip them for the trying years that wait ahead. For those whose children have already reached the stage of adolescence the Handbook offers parents guidance as to how to stay involved in their adolescents lives, and how to identify problems the adolescent may be experiencing. An interesting list of Principles for life and a comprehensive list of South African resources are provided to facilitate access to professional help. This book provides all the information needed to teach your children wholesome, Godly principles. It is a fantastic resource. I highly recommend this book to all parents. It would most definitely assist you during the difficult, adolescent years. BRUCE MALONE American Research Leader, Chemical Engineer, Author, Father of Four. With today's increasing emphasis on the problems of teenagers, this book could hardly have been more timely and important. I know Indira Gilbert personally as a motivated and knowledgeable individual, whose qualities could not help but be reflected in her book." PROF. DANIEL LEACH AB (Penn) PhD (UCLA) Formerly Department of Economic and Business Sciences University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Adolescenceâ€"beginning with the onset of puberty and ending in the mid-20sâ€"is a critical period of development during which key areas of the brain mature and develop. These changes in brain structure, function, and connectivity mark adolescence as a period of opportunity to discover new vistas, to form relationships with peers and adults, and to explore one's developing identity. It is also a period of resilience that can ameliorate childhood setbacks and set the stage for a thriving trajectory over the life course. Because adolescents comprise nearly one-fourth of the entire U.S. population, the nation needs policies and practices that will better leverage these developmental opportunities to harness the promise of adolescenceâ€"rather than focusing myopically on containing its risks. This report examines the neurobiological and socio-behavioral science of adolescent development and outlines how this knowledge can be applied, both to promote adolescent well-being, resilience, and development, and to rectify structural barriers and inequalities in opportunity, enabling all adolescents to flourish.

In this groundbreaking guide, psychotherapist and educator Maria Clark Fleshwood provides a tested, six-step approach to engage, guide, and prepare their pre-teen daughters for the challenges and changes of adolescence.

Adolescence is a time of individuation--children are slowly finding their identity as adults, separate from their parents and other adult influences. Such a critical time of psychological development is complicated by cultural influences that shape their expectations of adulthood and color how they relate to other people and even God. The task of the youth pastor becomes to help adolescents navigate this often treacherous journey, helping young people reconcile their experience of childhood to the reality of their impending adulthood, and rooting and establishing them in a faith that can sustain them through their adult journey as well. Drawing on the insights of sociology and psychology, Jacober reveals youth ministry to be an act of practical theology, and helps youth pastors find their footing as they guide young people through adolescence.

Speaks to adolescents about such topics as drug abuse, sex, family conflict, friendship, love, and conformity.

In this New York Times–bestselling book, Dr. Daniel Siegel shows parents how to turn one of the most challenging developmental periods in their children’s lives into one of the most rewarding. Between the ages of twelve and twenty-four, the brain changes in important and, at times, challenging ways. In Brainstorm, Dr. Daniel Siegel busts a number of commonly held myths about adolescence—for example, that it is merely a stage of “immaturity” filled with often “crazy” behavior. According to Siegel, during adolescence we learn vital skills, such as how to leave home and enter the larger world, connect deeply with others, and safely experiment and take risks. Drawing on important new research in the field of interpersonal neurobiology, Siegel explores exciting ways in which understanding how the brain functions can improve the lives of adolescents, making their relationships more fulfilling and less lonely and distressing on both sides of the generational divide.

In perceiving all rap and hip-hop music as violent, misogynistic, and sexually charged, are we denying the way in which it is attentive to the lived experiences, both positive and negative, of many therapy clients? This question is explored in great depth in this anthology, the first to examine the use of this musical genre in the therapeutic context. The contributors are all experienced therapists who examine the multiple ways that rap and hip-hop can be used in therapy by listening and discussing, performing, creating, or improvising. The text is divided into three sections that explore the historical and theoretical perspectives of rap and hip-hop in therapy, describe the first-hand experiences of using the music with at-risk youth, and discuss the ways in which contributors have used rap and hip-hop with clients with specific diagnoses, respectively. Within these sections, the contributors provide rationale for the use of rap and hip-hop in therapy and encourage therapists to validate the experiences for those for whom rap music is a significant mode of expression. Editors Susan Hadley and George Yancy go beyond promoting culturally competent therapy to creating a paradigm shift in the field, one that speaks to the problematic ways in which rap and hip-hop have been dismissed as expressive of meaningless violence and of little social value. More than providing tools to incorporate rap into therapy, this text enhances the therapist's cultural and professional repertoire.

The skills in shortest supply for the future workplace are not technical, but behavioural – creativity, problem-solving and critical thinking. Raising Thinkers begins with an exploration of this skills gap in developed countries across the East and West from a national, corporate and educational perspective. In Asia there is growing unhappiness with a school system that is too narrowly focused on rote learning and teaching to test. In the West there is much debate about the efficacy of school systems that either cater largely to the lowest levels of ability or that too blindly strive to top global education rankings. Raising Thinkers provides insight into the future that today’s children will inhabit as adults and what public school systems are currently serving up. It covers the mechanics of high-level, critical and creative thinking, problem solving and decision making and proposes a curiosity-based approach to problems that should be taught right from school-going years. School reform will always lag behind the ever evolving needs of the corporate world. For current scholars and parents, change will come too late – therefore Raising Thinkers is also a guide aimed at helping parents and caregivers bridge the skills gap in fun, useful and practical ways.

Over the last decade, significant changes have occurred in how schools are organized, how educators are prepared and certified, how accreditation policies have shifted both curriculum and content, as well as changes to the demographics of middle school classrooms. This volume, Preparing Middle Level Educators for 21st Century Schools: Enduring Beliefs, Changing Times, Evolving Practices provides a review of current research focused on middle level educator preparation at all levels. Our enduring beliefs about young adolescents have not changed (e.g., need for developmentally responsive instruction, caring adults who understand them and are prepared to teach them, opportunities to explore their interests) but the political and sociocultural climate of schools and schooling has. In light of changing times, this volume allows researchers and teacher educators to share research from their context and inform the evolving practices of educator preparation for the middle level. The research presented in this volume is organized into three sections, with an introduction provided for each. The authors grounded their work in the Association for Middle Level Education’s teacher preparation standards (2012) and tenets of This We Believe (NMSA, 2010). By doing so, they examine topics that hold potential for meeting the learning needs of teachers and students in middle level schools. The first section includes chapters from individuals working to ensure that the enduring beliefs of middle level education continue to guide the structures of their middle level teacher preparation programs. The second set of chapters closely examines how changing times are shaping the work of teacher educators. Finally, the last section spotlights evolving practices that continue to develop in response to the changes impacting our classrooms, schools, and communities. This text provides readers with researched-based practices and information to help them continue the tradition of middle level teacher education. The enduring beliefs of preparing teachers who understand, respect, and honor the many talents, gifts, and contributions of the young adolescent student will guide teacher educators as they respond to the changing times of education and the evolving practices of teachers, teacher educators, and schools.