5 Love Languages for Teenagers Posted by:Jenn--Wednesday, June 04, 2014

At a recent PSST meeting, someone mentioned the 5 Love Languages, as presented in the book by Gary Chapman: words of affirmation, acts of service, receiving gifts, quality time, and physical touch.  You may be aware that the 5 languages pertain to the relationship between husbands and wives, but you may not know that these same languages are relevant to your relationship with your child as well.

It’s easy to tell when a teenager wants to be loved. Getting the message across is another matter entirely. In addition to the obvious generation gap, many parents and children face a sort of language barrier as well. The 5 Love languages of Teenagers is an invaluable tool for analyzing a teen’s love language and expressing your affections in an effective way. The search for love in a teenager’s life can lead to disastrous results. But if you can speak the right language, the difference can seem miraculous.

If you go to the website http://www.5lovelanguages.com/, look under the words Discover your Love Language, where you will see the words Click Here to Begin.  You and your spouse can choose to do the profile for yourselves, but you can also choose to do it for “My Child”.  In either case, the assessment will score your rankings of the 5 Love Languages.  You will see the following if you choose to do the assessment for your child:   

The Love Language Profile for Teenagers is designed to give you a thorough analysis of your teenager’s emotional communication preference. It will single out their primary love language, what it means, and how you can use it to better understand them during this stage of their life. Invite them to take the assessment and share their results with you. Not only will you show them that you care, but that you are also striving to be a better parent.

You may want to first take the profile yourself, selecting the statements you believe most accurately describe your teen. Then once they have also taken the assessment, compare your results with theirs. This can make for a lively and constructive conversation.