Speaking to teenagers can be very difficult. It is really difficult when the only responses are: “yeah”; “no”; “shoulder shrug”; “whateva”; or the famous one, “I don’t know”. Other difficulties with communicating with teens can be: the ipod in their ears, a sign on their door says not to enter, on Facebook or Myspace, out with friends or just does not want to talk. What can a parent do?

Here is a list of four things to do to communicate with your teen.

1) Set time aside for conversation with your teen. Teens are so busy with sports, friends, computer time, that having a specific time where you both can sit down and talk is very helpful.

2) With setting a time, you and your teen can do something together. Sometimes it takes the edge off of both of you of just sitting there with not a whole lot of things to say. After the activity, it helps to break the ice.

3) Listen. This is very important because one thing that teens want is to be heard. Listening can be difficult for a parent because parents are better at telling teens what to do. The more you listen, the more you will know about your teen.

4) Don’t judge or criticize what your teen says. If they are commenting about a teacher, what they don’t like about him/her or that the teacher does not know what he’s talking about, just listen. Remember, the more you listen, the more you will know about your teen!

There may be more things you can do to communicate with your teen, but sometimes learning to focus on these four can help make the little changes in your relationship seem really big!

Take time and you can see a difference.