Adolescents like information from a variety of sources ... so they may like information direct from parents, or say from a trusted adult. They may also like to read [and] they also may like to get online, as we know ... .
You could say, ‘You know, somebody told me this is a good book, I don’t know, you might want to look through it, see if you like it, if you’ve got any questions, let me know’, and then you can revisit that.
Or you can say, ‘Look, somebody told me these are some great online sites ... and if you’ve got any questions, come back to me’ ... .
What they really need to hear from you, and this is where it’s really helpful for an early teenager who may be afraid to ask, they need to know that it’s okay to come back to you for questions.
Sheryl Ryan, M.D.
Yale School of Medicine
Chief, Section of Adolescent Medicine, Associate Professor
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