Age is an opportunity no less than youth itself, though in another dress.
– H.W. Longfellow
This book explores the reasons that communicating with the older adults is sometimes so frustrating and offers strategies and skills for overcoming these difficulties. In the book I show that by understanding our older adults’ unique developmental agenda and using different language, phrases, and vocabulary, anyone – relatives, friends, colleagues – can learn to communicate effectively and effortlessly with their aging family members, acquaintances, and clients.
Aimed at baby boomers and their parents, professionals who work with the older adults, and everyone who has regular contact with older adults and finds conversations at times to be an exercise in frustration, this book offers the insights I’ve formed in serving this segment of the population over the past 25 years.
The book has four aims:
- To help readers understand the conflicting and previously unappreciated tasks on the older adult’s unique developmental agenda;
- To recognize how these developmental tasks can interfere with our ability to communicate effectively;
- To offer easy-to-learn skills that enhance communication between the generations;
- To guide us in becoming advocates for our aging parents.
This is a terrific book! David Solie has beautifully integrated his knowledge of child development into later development. His fresh insights into the psychology of older adults combined with his practical approach to improving communication between the generations are to be applauded.
Geriatric psychologist Solie does an excellent job of debunking the myth that our elders are merely older versions of ourselves. Seniors are undergoing a developmental transition akin to adolescence; practical, effective communication methods are presented to help minimize generational conflict. This, in turn, paves the way for the important work of advocating for (instead of marginalizing) elders, who face a daily struggle for control. This (book) makes an important contribution to our cultural understanding of seniors.
It doesn’t take too extensive a reading of demographic trends in America to know that David Solie has his finger on the pulse of the future. Unlike other books describing the crisis surrounding the aging issue, which point out myriad problems with no solutions, David actually offers a fundamental practical breakthrough in the most crucial area of all: Communication. His breakthrough has the quality of genius about it. When you read it you smack your forehead and say, “Well, of course. It’s so obvious!” Millions of readers will have the same response.
This isn’t theory…it’s field reality…and David gives the reader practical, how-to tips that should resonate with all of us. This book is a great gift for a financial advisor to give to all clients with senior parents. They’ll thank you for the lessons that they are not going to learn anywhere else.
David Solie’s book is full of information, wisdom, illuminating and memorable anecdotes, and practical advice.
All baby boomers need to read this book!
Every now and then a new work comes along that once you read it-it forever changes the way you see the world. “How To Say It To Seniors” is one of those rare books.
The book is wonderful in the dignity it offers the aged. It shows that they are often dealing with clusters of losses and could use support, not hurried answers. Readers will learn that the elderly are not being stubborn or meandering just to be difficult–instead, they are tending to the job of being old.