Christmas gift for your teen

The Christmas holiday will be here before we have a chance to breathe after Thanksgiving. Stores have had their Christmas decorations up for weeks now and parents are gearing up for the dreaded holiday shopping.

Some of the most difficult gifts to buy at Christmas is for teens. With all the gadgets teens want, they may not realize what they need. That's where parents step in.

Why not give your teen something that will help them move through their teen years with Godly insight? A book designed to discuss topics that affect teens daily. A book that gives teens and parents a place to come together to openly discuss some of the difficulties they face.

The book is, Tools4Teens.

Rich in truth, moving in story, profound in content … it’s what you want every teenager to read, reflect and relate to as they attempt to navigate the most turbulent waters of life … the teenage years! With the Spirit of faith, hope and love, Kelly Litvak and Shirley Hanson have assembled more than a book, it is a snapshot of an intersection between the two most important stories in history, God’s story and yours. ~ Jerry Edmonson, Lead Pastor, The Fellowship at Cinco Ranch

Order yours today. It's the easiest gift you'll purchase but the one that will sow seeds that will grow a lifetime.

Educators gather to learn how to prevent suicide among teens

Teenage suicide should never happen.

That's what LDS romance novelist Anita Stansfield, who spoke at the Provo School District's suicide prevention conference on Friday, told the hundreds of teachers, counselors and social workers who had gathered at BYU on a mission toward that very goal.

Stansfield spoke about her older brother, who killed himself at age 50 after years of struggling with mental illness. Twenty years prior to Nathan's suicide, her uncle had killed himself. No mention of this was made at his funeral.

Stansfield said she made the choice to talk about how he killed himself at Nathan's funeral.

"I just believe that denial is a great facilitator of many ugly things in life," she said.

Presenters talked about a number of different subjects, including the science behind depression, addiction and suicide, bullying, how to recognize suicidal behavior and talk to suicidal teens and different ways to help teenagers.

Beyond the basics of bullying: Curt Johnson

Girls gossip and backbite, boys kick and punch. That's how Americans view bullying.

New research out of Utah County shows that boys are more likely than girls to gossip and tease and less likely to see such relational bullying as actual bullying, which means it won't go away.

Curt Johnson, a psychologist with the Provo School District, said girls are more likely to tease and gossip than to engage in physical bullying, but boys are more likely overall to engage in all types of bullying, including the more emotional kind. Boys also are more likely to be the target of bullies.

Read entire article here.

By: Heidi Toth, Daily Herald

Technology everywhere: when will we learn?

Are teenagers too obsessed with their technology? Between cell phones, TV, MP3 players, video games and Facebook, when do teens have time for actual socializing?

It seems that teens' technology has become their lifeline. If someone were to take away their cellphone, it would be like taking away their oxygen.

As sad as it is, for some teens, it is an addiction.

If a teen goes to visit a friend or family member, you can almost guarantee that they will be pulling out their phone to text someone about something while visiting. This is kind of sad because it seems that teens are saying, "Yeah, I'll hang out with you, but I really would rather be with this person."

Another sad thing is that teens spend more time chatting on Facebook with their 650 "friends" than they do having a face-to-face conversation with a friend in real life.

An added problem is that most teenagers will have at least one ear bud in their ear at all times whether they are at school (and the teacher is talking) or at a performance. It's as if teenagers need a piece of technology with them at all times or else they suffer.

I am not saying that we should get rid of technology or even ban it from school; I simply think that teenagers need to understand that there is a time and a place for technology. As one veteran Regina mom who has raised three teens, comments, "With all of today's modern communication technology, youth are missing out on opportunities to have real and deep relationships."

Teenagers should be able to put down their cellphones and leave the MP3 player at home to spend some quality time with family and friends. Talk, play a game, go for a walk, do something enjoyable without technology. Teens need to put away the gadgets before it's too late and they end up staying in their own little technological world with no outside interactions.

by: Jillian Stewart, Leader-post

New iPhone app aimed at getting help to troubled teens

Kids may not come with user manuals, but a just-released technology-driven tool aims to make it easier to find help for hurt and troubled teenagers.

The process — recognizing a problem, identifying the causes and ultimately finding help — can be a complex puzzle for adults unfamiliar with the pressures teens face at middle and high schools and the resources available to help.

That dilemma begged an obvious question: “How can we put a tool in the hands of all those people?” said Eric Nidiffer, vice president of Turning Point Experience, a Las Vegas-based nonprofit organization dedicated to helping students avoid destructive influences in their lives.

For the past 10 months, father-son duo William and Eric Nidiffer have been working with the Southern Nevada Community Gang Task Force to produce that tool — a comprehensive iPhone application designed to educate adults about the top 20 issues teens face and provide them with the resources for finding help.

Read entire article here.

By Jackie Valley, www.lasvegassun.com

Experts warn of pitfalls teens face on social networking sites

A photo or snippet of information posted to a social networking site such as Facebook can become a digital first-impression of a person, and for some young people, it’s not a good one, an expert on cyberbullying said.

To make his point, Sameer Hinduja, co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center, flashed a series of photos publicly displayed on Facebook of teens drinking, doing drugs and engaging in other questionable behavior.

“It’d be nice if I sat down with any of these kids and had a chat with them and got a feel for their integrity and their character,” said Hinduja, keynote speaker at a forum on cyberbullying, sexting and social network privacy.

“But we live in a society where we don’t take the time to do that. What we do is Google you...and make a snap judgment about you,” Hinduja said.

The Anti-Defamation League and Henderson Libraries hosted The ABCs of Cyberbullying panel discussion on Wednesday at the Paseo Verde Library.

Read entire article.

By: Rich Coleman, www.lasvegassun.com

Demi Lovato's Treatment Sheds Light On Teen Issues, Expert Says

Now that Demi Lovato has entered a treatment facility to deal with "emotional and physical issues she has dealt with for some time," her public struggle is shedding light on a whole range of issues that many teenage girls face. Lovato has been open in the past about the pressure she's under, including her self-esteem issues and constant media scrutiny.

Dr. Dorian Traube, assistant professor at the University of Southern California's School of Social Work, spoke to MTV News about the advice she has for young people who might be going through a similarly difficult time.

"Well, I think regardless to whether the bullying contributed to what sent her to seek treatment, she's in treatment because she's having issues related to self-esteem and mental health, and all of that makes you feel lonely," she explained. "So I think it's important for young women or teens to realize that it is important to find an environment in which they feel like they excel and treated with respect and that they have a good cadre of friends around them."

Read entire article here.

-By: Jocelyn Vena, mtv.com

Teen Binge Drinking LInked to Attention Problems

Teens who binge drink may be more likely to experience problems with attention as well as making decisions and carrying them out (executive function), a study shows.

The study, published in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, also shows that teens who smoke marijuana tend to have trouble with their memory.

Substance abuse during the adolescent years can have significant lifelong consequences on the developing brain. "Both animal models and observational studies in humans suggest that binge drinking during adolescence alters normal developmental processes in a way that negatively impacts learning and social adjustment into adulthood," says study researcher Robert J. Thoma, PhD, a psychiatrist at the Center for Neuropsychological Services of the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, in an email.

"On one hand, the adolescents in our study were functioning largely within the normal range on cognitive tests, [but] it is likely that they are under-performing on many of these tasks relative to their ability before initiation of binge drinking," he says.

"Consistent under-performance in school could shift an adolescent’s trajectory of educational attainment, thereby affecting subsequent job placement and socioeconomic status," he says.

Read entire article here.

-Denise Mann, Webmd.com