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Practical Parenting
E
arly and often is the best way to talk to
children about the dangers of substance
abuse, experts agree.
Instead of making drugs and alcohol a taboo
topic, brought up only if your children have issues
with them, speak to your kids from a young age
about how to live a healthy lifestyle and how
substance use can interfere with that, doctors
and substance abuse experts recommend.
Healthy conversations
While there's no hard and fast age for first
talking to kids about substance abuse, "it's best
to start the dialogue before the likelihood of
experimentation occurs, which is often in middle
school," suggests Dr. Kevin M. Gray, who is a
professor and director of child and adolescent
psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and
Behavioral Sciences at Medical University of
South Carolina in Charleston.
He advises parents to frame the discussion
of drugs and alcohol as part of a general
conversation on healthy habits while their kids
are in elementary school.
Talking to your kids about
By Stephanie
Thompson
drugs and
alcohol