Parents & Adolescents Living Together: The Basics

This book is a powerful tool for parents in managing a family. I have found that it's concepts apply to all members of the family, not just teens. It is well written.

Gerald Paterson and Marion Forgatch provide practical, useful and effective suggestions on how to improve your parenting skills and thereby improve the behavior of your children. Replace negative, coercive parent/child interactions with more positive, reciprocal interactions. Volume I covers basic family managment skills: how to give effecitve instructions, how to set up household rules, how to design and implement a basic point system and so on. Part 1 teaches parents how to respond to specific adolescent behaviors and establish consequences that result in changes in their child's behavior. The principles in this book work well with kids aged 8 through 16. Some suggestions may not be as helpful for older teens, 17-18 years old. It's better if you read the book now, when your child is 8,9, or 10 than wait until your child is 17. Buy both volumes 1 and 2. Volume 2 covers Communication Skills, Problem Solving, Sex, Drugs, and Alcohol, School Problems and more. The two books are an excellent resource for child counselors and family therapists.