nBlending cutting-edge research with engaging storytelling, The Breakthrough Years offers readers a paradigm-shifting comprehensive understanding of adolescence. n nAlmost every adolescent has said to parents, You JUST dont understand. n nIn The Breakthrough Years, child development expert Ellen Galinsky explains why that is so often true. nGalinskys seven-year inquiry into the adolescent brain and behavior, including conducting original studies--uniquely informed by the questions adolescents have about their own development--shows why our understanding of adolescence is out of step with the latest research--and how to correct it. She: n- Identifies Five Basic Needs--such as belonging, developing competence, and building an identity--and shows how we can meet these needs in positive ways; n- Presents Five Life Skills that are developing rapidly during adolescence like setting goals and strategies, perspective taking, critical thinking, and taking on challenges and shows how we can promote them; n- Introduces Solutions Mindset and Shared Solutions, a problem-solving mindset and process that parents and others can use to help create solutions to their adolescents challenging problems. nEllen Galinskys paradigm-shifting book will help parents and those who work with teens to understand adolescence not as the I hope we can get though these years but as the breakthrough years that they truly can ben