Normal Adolescent Development
Normal Adolescent Development
It’s not uncommon to hear parents sharing the observation that upon hitting adolescence, their child now feels like a stranger to them – in fact, the observation has probably been made for hundreds of years, if not longer! As a society, we are fairly knowledgeable about the changes occurring within adolescence on a hormonal and physical level, as most of us remember these difficult changes for ourselves. Some parents and families are also understanding of some of the emotional and social changes taking place for their adolescents, such as mood swings, changes in social circles, and spending less time with the family. Other families struggle with these changes as they often challenge existing family values, norms or patterns.
Another aspect of normal adolescent development that is less known is around brain development. For science nerds like myself, this is an exciting time in research as brain studies are now demonstrating and proving aspects about our development that we long believed but could not demonstrate concretely. Two areas of the brain that are particularly important when considering adolescence (and to some degree, younger children as well) are the limbic and cortical areas of the brain. In layman’s terms, the limbic area is more ancient and is like the brain’s accelerator, telling us to react, to fight or run away, and linked to the emotional responses we might provide – whereas the cortical area is more recently developed, is like the brain’s brakes, and handles logic, planning ahead, and restraint skills. What tends to happen is a process of ‘toggling’ between these two areas of the brain, with one area triggering a ‘react’ response, and the other area pleading for restraint and caution.
Ready for a scary fact? The cortical area of the brain isn’t fully developed until around our mid-20s! Which means adolescents are still learning and developing the skills of restraint, frustration tolerance, and planning ahead for consequences, right down to a physical brain level. Hence when people identify adolescents as more emotionally reactive and less ‘wise’ in terms of some decisions, this is what is happening. This has important implications for how parents engage in difficult conversations with teenagers about problematic behaviours as well – stay tuned!
More next time!