Communicating with a teenager can be difficult. The following hints will help you increase your communication and decrease your anger. 

Keep it brief.  After three sentences you sound like Charlie Brown’s teacher..wah wah whaa. 

They cannot read your expression therefore you need to communicate your feelings.  In a study teenagers were shown pictures of faces displaying various emotions and the teenagers were not able to identify how the person was feeling.  So it’s not surprising that they did not know you were angry and are surprised when you start yelling.  No they did not see it in your face.

Don’t ask them a question if they don’t have the right to answer yes or no.  For example, do not say, “Bob will you take out the trash?”  instead say “Bob please take out the trash now.”

Their brain is still developing.  The brain is not fully developed until the age of twenty-five.  Teenager’s thinking changes from concrete to abstract.  The change does not occur all at once, it takes awhile.  This is why one moment your teenager will make a good decision and the next not understand a simple request.  Another study showed that when teenagers answer questions, the emotional part of their brain responds, not the logical part of their brain.  So when their decision does not seem sensible to you, it’s not.  That’s why it is difficult to make a logical argument to a teenager

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