"This superb book combines science, psychology, and direct experience with adolescents to create a warm-hearted, intelligent, and practical guide. Parents will find the book immensely informative, reassuring, and useful. I highly recommend it!"
                    --Edward Hallowell, M.D., author of Driven to Distraction, The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness, and                       Dare to Forgive

"Down to earth experience together with the latest findings on brain development, this book is a wonderful resource for parents, or for that matter, anyone who interacts with adolescents."
                    --John Nelson, M.D. MPH, Trustee of the American Medical Association

"David Walsh has taken on the task of explaining in readable, sympathetic language what the recent discoveries in neuroscience have to say about our traditional frustrations with teenagers. And he does it beautifully! Even with new insights, however, wisdom, patience and a sense of humor are still going to be the essential tool kit for any adult working with adolescents. That is where Dr. Walsh is particularly strong. His love for adolescents shines through every page, and parents will find his generous-hearted advice both comforting and helpful."
                    --Michael Thompson, co-author of Raising Cain

"Why Do They Act That Way is a comprehensive guide to the biology behind just about every adolescent behavior a parent or teacher might encounter. Dr. Walsh's gentle humor and friendly exploration of some personal parenting mishaps make this a highly readable and helpful book. You'll finish it feeling as if you've just had coffee with someone who is not only entertaining and enlightening but who knows exactly how it feels to be the mom or dad of a twenty first century teen."
                    --Cheryl Dellasega, Ph.D., Author of Surviving Ophelia

"Dave Walsh's weaving together of current understanding of the teenage brain with years of clinical experience with teens has produced a thoughtful, practical and down-to-earth guide that enables parents to understand and deal well with their teenager. If you are struggling with your adolescent, or even anticipating your child's entrance into those crazy years, this book will show you why it all makes sense and how to help both you and your teen have the healthiest, sanest passage."
                    --Gail Saltz, M.D., Today Show Mental Health Contributor; Author of Becoming Real

"The adolescent brain is NOT an oxymoron! Parents and teachers need to understand its critical developmental needs, and Dr. Walsh's clear, scientific, and humane counsel is just the ticket. I especially like his real-life stories and the chapter on helping kids manage the media."
                    --Jane M. Healy, Ph.D., Educational Psychologist and author of Your Child's Growing Mind and Failure to                        Connect

"David Walsh is one of the most eloquent and effective advocates for youth today. This book advocates for parents as well by translating the rapidly growing research on the developing brain into an accessible guidebook for understanding the behavioral changes and emotional liquidity of the adolescent years."
                    --W. Andrew Collins, Ph.D., Morse-Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor; Institute of Child
                       Development, University of Minnesota.

"This book belongs on the shelf in every middle and high school library and in the office of every school administrator who deals with adolescents."
                    --Thomas R. Stevens, Headmaster, Rocky Mount Academy, Rocky Mount, NC

Here are two different approaches to help parents understand adolescent behavior:
Dr. David Walsh, a clinical psychologist with experience as a high school teacher, focuses on how adolescent brain development and chemistry lead to troubling behaviors. He shows parents how to respond constructively to traits like risk taking, sullenness, and refusal to follow rules. An engaging narrative style and insight into adolescents' minds make Walsh's book enjoyable as well as informative; recommended for public libraries and for academic libraries at schools with clinical psychology programs.

Psychiatrist Henry H. Paul (When Kids Are Mad, Not Bad) explores a wider range of problems, e.g., serious disorders like schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder, in a reference format. Sections include "Feelings," "Behavior," and "Drugs," which are subdivided into chapters on particular disorders or situations. The book supplies cross references by chapter and contact information for mental health organizations, but references to bibliographic resources would have made it more useful, given the necessarily limited coverage of so many different issues. Some readers might find Paul overly willing to recommend medication for teenagers with common diagnoses such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), too easily dismissing the possibility of misdiagnosis and the risk of medicating young people unnecessarily. While Paul's book is not as outstanding overall as Walsh's, it does provide parents with basic information on mental illnesses not covered in Walsh's book and is recommended for public libraries.
                     --Susan E. Pease, Univ. of Massachusetts Lib., Amherst Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

"What parent hasn't asked "Why does my teen act that way?!" We know teens are great people, but sometimes the choices they make and the rationale they give defy adult logic.

Think back to your teen years. Did you ever take a risk that made no sense? Were you more impulsive? Distracted? Moody? Were you sometimes territorial and quick to anger? Maybe all you could think about was the opposite sex… These are normal teen behaviors and now we have a physical explanation for them. New technology shows that the teen brain works differently and there is a tremendous amount of brain development going on from the onset of puberty until young adulthood.

David Walsh's new book, Why Do They Act that Way? A Survival Guide to the Adolescent Brain for You and Your Teen (Free Press, 2004) provides parents and others who care about teens with a clear explanation for the behaviors that baffle parents. Best of all, through stories of his experiences raising three children into adulthood, his therapy practice and his time teaching at the high school level, Walsh provides real examples of teen behaviors and how parents can address them. He addresses impulsivity and risk taking, gender differences, love and sex, the impacts of alcohol, drugs and tobacco, media, sleep, mental health issues - all in the context of how parents and other adults can provide guidance.

This is an excellent book about parenting because Walsh clearly describes the important role parents play in guiding their teen as their brain grows and changes. When parents have a structured approach - firm rules, firm enforcement, limited negotiation, stable leadership, balancing the needs of parents and teens and respecting their opinions (not necessarily agreeing with them), teens simply do better.

Through stories and a "Parent Survival Kit" section in each chapter, he provides strategies for parenting teens. These common sense suggestions will affirm what many parents know they need to be doing to keep teens safe and build their relationship as they journey into young adulthood. "

                    --Reviewed by: Rose Allen, Family Relations Specialist University of Minnesota Extension Service