Teenage Years

Teenage Years

01

What do you remember of your teenage years? You might not memorize them vividly, but I'm sure your parents might be. Because teenagers are nightmare to their moms and dads.

Some teenagers are rude to their parents, don't do their homework, stay out late at night，hang out with bad people，and make lots of bad decisions. They make their parents and teachers tons of headaches.

But why do these things always happen？ What's behind adolescent behaviors?

New scientific research shows that it is probably not the fault of the teenagers, as their brains are not fully developed．That sounds a good excuse.

02

Teenage years is a special period of time in one's life that young people grow from child to adult. It refers to the age group from 13 to 19. And there is another word that has the similar meaning, adolescence. The adjective word is adolescent.

In the past we thought human brains finished development in the earlier years of one’s life，which had been written down on the textbook of university students. However, the new research papers published in the late 1990s suggests that the human brains are developing into the 20s. It definitely overthrew the old dogma.

Scientific scientist to find out that the region in the brain that controls one’s behavior and planning isNot fully developed in teenagers.The region in the brain, called pre-frontal cortex, just behind the forehead, that controls conscious thinking and processing is not mature. So if we expect too much from teenagers in relation to high-level cognitive task it might be far their capacities.

While teenagers do not need to lie to their teachers saying that their homework had been left it on the bus or been eaten by dogs, they can just say that my brain is not developed enough for my homework.

03

Professor Ms Blakemore from the University of London talked about this subject
on the BBC programme ‘scientific life’． She said the understanding that our brain is developing until the 20s is quite new. For example, when she was at university the textbook told that human brains completed its development in the early years of one’s life. It’s completely false. New study suggests that our brain is developing continuously into the twenties。

The research papers that was published in the scientific journal just appeared in the late nineties. It has changed our understanding of teenagers behaviour and their conscious thinking acts.

04

So the professor has given a good excuse to teenagers that they cannot control their behaviors and the attitudes towards their teachers and parents has the new foundation.

Now they can say that due to their brains are not developed enough to do the high level cognitive tasks such as planning and control their behaviors. So it is too much for them to plan homework．

The philosophy behind the acts of teenagers is that their brains are not fully developed，so teachers and parents have to understand their behaviors and actions physically and psychologically.

When parenting and teaching teenagers, we have to think about the other way given that their brains are undergoing development.