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Adolescence can be the cruelest place on earth. It can really be heartless.  ( Tori Amos)

The teenage years require a delicate balance between the young person's need to gain independence, and the parent's need to retain authority.

Parenting style matters - a lot!

The way we talk to our children becomes their inner voice. (Peggy O'Mara)

Being a parent of a teenager can cure a person of narcissism.

It's more effective to reward your child for being "good" (appropriate) than to punish him for being "bad" (inappropriate).

Hurt people hurt people.

Children do not develop on their own - they only develop within relationships.

You cannot reason with someone who is being unreasonable.

It is what we say and do when we're angry that creates the very model our children will follow when dealing with their own frustrations.

Learn more.

FASD – Late Adolescence (17 – 22)

The main goals :

  1. move out of home
  2. establish his own life
  3. learn to cope with societal rules – increase personal expectation with diminishing parental support (lots of teens without FASD have trouble with this)

Trouble Areas:

  1. undereducated
  2. poor money management
  3. loneliness
  4. lack of boundaries
  5. poor judgement

He may lack the emotional and / or the educational maturity to embark on an independent life but he still has the internal and societal programming that makes him want to do it.

GUIDELINES FOR PARENTS

Your late adolescent meeds a combination of:

  • support
  • encouragement
  • patience
  • letting go

It may be best to try to ease your young person into independence by having him board with someone or home share with a responsible adult or convert the garage to a granny flat or have him move into a group home.

This is the stage of life when some individuals begin families of their own. A person with FASD usually requires an enormous amount of support

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Workshops

+ Behaviour Management (now available online)

This full day or 2 evening workshop will introduce you […]

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+ A Parent’s Guide to the Teenage Brain

  A teenager’s brain is not just an adult brain […]

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+ Reading Rescue

A program for children with reading problems

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+ A Guided Tour of ADHD (now available online)

This workshop will present the facts, myths, misconceptions, controversy and […]

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See more of our workshops


Contact

2720 Rath Street, Putnam, Ontario
NOL 2BO

Phone: (519) 485-4678
Fax: (519) 485-0281

Email: info@rickharper.ca

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Parents' Comments

“He is a wealth of knowledge coupled with first hand experience.”

(E.K. – London)