How can you guide your child if they discount what you say? What if your child fights you about something you find unacceptable? Is your relationship with your child eroding? What can you do? Connect with Your Kid is an unprecedented, practical step-by-step skill-building guide for improving the 10 most important parent-child communication skills: Listen to understand - Coach children to think for themselves - Guide learning from experience - Get buy-in for expectations - Offer encouragement - Express appreciation - Give feedback constructively - Accept feedback graciously - Engage in dialogue - Resolve conflict creatively Eliminate arguments and resolve conflicts. Build respect and trust. Grow the bond. All this is possible when you connect with effective communication. "With empathy and wise counsel, Dr. Coates teaches us how to communicate in a way that will be well-received by our children, fostering mutual understanding, respect, and trust for a lifetime. Connect with Your Kid is a must read for every parent!" --Dennis J. Trittin , President of LifeSmart Publishing, and author of What I Wish I Knew at 18 , Parenting for the Launch , and Wings Not Strings "Sage advice. Listen to understand, coach your child to learn how to think, and value your child's growing autonomy. Help your young adults grow into successful social-emotionally whole humans who love themselves and respect and value others. In this time of change, parents can feel reassured by the wisdom and guidance of Dr. Dennis Coates. Connect with Your Kid is critically needed as parenting young adults in this digital age demands that we enhance our emotional intelligence, our communication skills, and the manner in which we express our deep caring toward those in our world." --Lynne Kenney , PsyD, pediatric psychologist " Connect with Your Kid provides well-informed and actionable ways for parents to get in touch with their best selves, foster a healthy life and development for their child or teenager, and strengthen the familial relationship. Households will deeply benefit from this unprecedented opportunity to improve vital parent-child communication skills." --Kristine Tye , MA, MFT, Licensed therapist, teen specialist and parenting coach "Connect with Your Kid is a wonderful contribution to the parenting literature. A keeper! Coates helps the reader think about the big picture--how they want to communicate with their children over a lifetime. It's not about giving the right answers. It's about asking the right questions." --Joanie Connell , author of Flying without a Helicopter: How to Prepare Young People for Work and Life Dr. Denny Coates is a parenting thought leader who writes and speaks about parent-child communication andadolescent brain development for parents and adults who work with youth. He hasbeen helping adults improve communication skills for over 30 years. His focus: Sharing best practices for growing the parent-child bond througheffective communication - Explaining science-based insights to help adults guide youngpeople to develop their prefrontal cortex for executive/critical thinkingskills in order to avoid the pitfalls of growing up and achieve optimumintellectual capacity for adult life.  He is the author of these books for parents: Connect with Your Kid - Preparing Your Teen for Life - How Your Teen Can Grow a Smarter Brain - Conversations with the Wise Aunt --for middle school girls - Conversations with the Wise Uncle --for middle school boys - The Sacred Purpose --for administrators of youth sports programs