Incredible Conversation Bettina Hohnen and Jane Gilmour

This week we have submitted the draft of our next book Incredible Conversations which is a resource for anyone supporting pre-teens, a place to have conversations and strengthen relationships. In line with that theme, we cover questions in the podcast from a group of teachers wanting to know top tips for preparing young people for the teenage years and how teachers and parents can help young people feel safe when there is so much uncertainty around in the Covid pandemic.
We consider how to find the balance between nurture and independence and the potential value of parents learning about what children need to grow up to be psychologically healthy. With covid impacting on so many, we discuss how teachers can support children with loss and trauma.
We end on a high with discussing the importance of mistakes, showing children we are all human and it’s potential to build resilience.

Episode 5 includes a discussion of why teens may be vulnerable to extreme views on the internet (1:42), why toxic stress may be particularly harmful in adolescence but day to day stresses are beneficial (12:25). We figure out why teenagers who were managing their health condition well before puberty, suddenly seem to forget it all (19:42) and why living through COVID is a masterclass in tolerating uncertainty which will have advantages as well as losses (29:40).

Questions in this episode focus on learning.  The discussion includes the impact of screen time on sleep, finding the Goldilocks spot with tech use, how we might support teenagers facing uncertainty in education prospects, and using the positives and negatives of lockdown to inform success in the new academic year. 

Bettina and Jane talk about the power of mentors to change teenagers’ behaviour, getting a reluctant teenager back out into the social world, supporting your teen’s passion with a cause like Black Lives Matter and how single parents might have been affected by the period of lockdown.

This episode discusses how to support teens’ losses during lockdown, how to prepare them when they see friends for the first time after lockdown, and figuring out the difference between a bored and depressed adolescent.