Six Steps to an Emotionally Intelligent Teenager: Teaching Social Skills to Your Teen

by James Windell

Practical parenting ideas for kids from ages 13 to 19 Helping teenagers navigate the rocky years between childhood and adulthood has always been a parenting challenge--a challenge that has only grown more difficult in today's fast-paced society. Noted parenting author and psychologist James Windell knows teens. He interacts with them every day. In this book, he offers exercises and practical ideas on how parents can raise a well-adjusted teenager with a solid chance for a successful life. Unlike so many books on parenting and teens that focus on discipline, this book emphasizes the importance of goal-setting, communication, and the development of social skills during the teen years. It reveals how to develop teens' emotional intelligence by demonstrating to them how they can handle their own emotions and respond constructively to the emotions of others. James Windell, MA (Detroit, MI), is a juvenile court psychologist. He is the author of ""Children Who Say No When You Want Them to Say Yes"" and ""Eight Weeks to a Well-Behaved Child."" Windell has appeared on CNN and ""Donahue,"" and his work has appeared in many national newspapers and magazines, including Jane Brody's column in the ""New York Times.""

228 pages, Paperback

First published August 9, 1999

About the author

James Windell, M.A., is a writer, college instructor and editor. He also has a consulting business called My Personal Editor.

As a writer, Mr. Windell wrote the weekly newspaper column Coping With Kids for the Staten Island (NY) Advance and the Oakland Press for more than 28 years. He also wrote the Coping With Kids column in Working Mother Magazine. In addition, he has published journal articles on juvenile justice and criminal justice, and has written several booklets on such topics as children's self-esteem, discipline, and hyperactivity. He has been writing non-fiction books since 1991 and has published 38 books. He has been the editor of The Michigan Psychologist for 15 years. In addition, he has been editing and consulting with authors and writers for several years.


His first book, Discipline: A Sourcebook of 50 Failsafe Techniques for Parents, was published by Macmillan in 1991. He subsequently published 8 Weeks to a Well-Behaved Child (Macmillan/Hungry Minds, Inc., 1994) and several other parenting books.


In addition to parenting books, he has authored or co-authored books on such topics as divorce, ADHD, child psychology, writing a dissertation, grief and loss and criminal justice.

Some of his more recent books are A Widow’s Guide to Healing: Gentle Support and Advice for the First Five Years (Sourcebooks, 2015); Crime and Intelligence Analysis: An Integrated Real-Time Approach (CRC Press, 2016); Who Shaped the American Criminal Justice System: Innovators and Pioneers (Cognella Publishing, 2018); Cognitive Behavior Protocols for Medical Settings: A Clinician’s Guide (Routledge, 2018); Juvenile Delinquency in American Society: Race, Class and Politics (Cognella Publishing, 2019).
His most recent book is Sentencing Youth to Life in Prison: Justice Denied (Routledge, 2022).

He has written two plays and edited a novel.


Mr. Windell earned his Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology at Oakland University (Rochester, MI). He has been a consultant to various juvenile court programs, the State of Michigan, the Michigan Department of Social Services, and to daycare and preschool programs. He has run parenting classes at the Haven, a domestic violence shelter for women and children in Pontiac, MI. He has been a court psychologist and run high-conflict divorce groups and anger management programs for adolescent delinquents.

Since 1991, Mr. Windell has appeared on over 185 radio and television programs including CNN, The Company Show, Gerry Spence, and The Donahue Show. Reviews and articles about his books and his work with parents have appeared in The New York Times, the Chicago Sun-Times, The Detroit News, Working Mother Magazine, Child Magazine, Parent Magazine, Parents Digest, and many other publications. His book 8 Weeks to a Well-Behaved Child was a best seller.

He teaches criminal justice classes at Wayne State University and Oakland University. He lives in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan with his wife, Jane, a speech and language pathologist and Director of the Early Childhood Education Department at Schoolcraft College.

Reviews

[Rendier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many good points, ideas and strategies. A lot to take in at one time, but applying these steps will help!