Teenage is a very important phase of your child's life. It is time in their life when they are in the state of confusion and they do not know what they want and what they need. During this time sometimes they just need a empathetic ear to listen to them and give them support. As parents, you need to realise this and give that time and attention to your child, so that they can speak up what is in their mind and just reduce some of the emotional burden they might be feeling. Below are some of the rules of communication you need to use in order to take your relationship with your teenager to the next level and make them feel confident about their own selves:

Recognise opportunities to talk: Try and find time to talk to your teenager. It need not be a formal setting or planned time. It can be a small chat you can have with them while driving back from school or while washing up plates at home. Get some form of informal, non-serious and effortless communication flowing with them.

Choose time with care: One mistake that many people make in teenage parenting is to try and talk when it suits them and not when it suits their teen. If your son is in the middle of trying to beat a high score on his latest game, or your daughter is just leaving the house, they are not going to want to talk! So pick your time with care, even if you have to be a little creative about creating an opportunity.

Provide for daily communication: While it is great to have informal and effortless communication, it does not undermine the need for having a quiet hour everyday with your teenager, when you can discuss the day or just the latest developments in the world of sport, science, electronics or whatever interests your teenager can help to develop the rapport. The more easily you can strike a conversation with your teenager, the more open they will be with you and the more trust you can develop in the relationship.

You need to have at least one face-to-face discussion with your child when you are not multi-tasking. Try and select a topic - "What did you do today?"; "How can we change the room set-up?"; "How are his/her friends doing?" etc. Be genuine about the topics and show an interest in what they are saying. In these discussions, ask as many open ended questions as you can but allow your child to do most of the talking and express their feelings, experiences and thoughts.

Put yourself aside: Do not bore your child with details about your day or certain events in your life, if you see that they are not interested. You will probably be tempted to try and impose your views onto your teen at some time, but give your child space and support to formulate their own ideas about the world - they will become a much stronger person for doing so.

In the book "Solving Teenage Problems", several tips to improve communication have been discussed. The book also provides two models on communication, which can help parents to structure difficult conversations and have a successful and effective communication with your teenager.