Learning Styles Helping Teenagers

· What are the warning signs that your teenager needs help?
· Is your teenager in trouble?
· Are you overreacting?

Teenage years are tricky. They are filled with hormone swings and misunderstandings, with fear and with awe, with too much responsibility and too little freedom. (Or is that “too much freedom and too little responsibility”?)

What teenagers desperately need is:
· acceptance
· a sense of belonging
· communication channels
· being understood
· independence within the framework of loving guidance and support.

When talking to a teenager, make sure you use their individual communication style.
· If they are word-oriented, write them a message and if they are auditory, then talk.
· If they are right-brained, use anecdotes. If they are left-brained, use facts.
· If they are right-brained, start with an overview and the objective. If they are left-brained, start at the beginning.

[Do you know your teenager’s communication style? It’s part of their Learning Style, available through the Learning Style Analysis (LSA) tool.]

Most teenagers can be moody, rude, impossible to talk to and difficult to live with. Experts agree that if your teen grunts good-morning, leaves the house without breakfast and dirty laundry on the floor, bangs the door on the way back in and slouches in silence through dinner... then he or she is a normal teenager who “will grow out of it”.

So when do you start worrying that your “normal teen” is a “troubled teen”?
· When a sociable teen stops socialising and spends a lot of time alone.
· When a teenager who’s usually happy with hos or her company starts socialising excessively, particularly with friends you consider scary.
· When a quiet teen listens to loud music.
· When a loud teen is too quiet.
· In short, when the teen’s behaviour does not reflect their Learning Style.

Living in violation of your Learning Style can lead to stress, burnout, health problems and depression. Do you know your teen’s Learning Style?