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healthykids TEEN BRAIN The Wild and Wooly
What Kids Need from Us to
Grow Wise by April Thompson P
eer pressure and body consciousness are universal challenges facing teens and their parents. Experts fi nd that by modeling healthy habits and maintaining open lines of communication, adults can help foster healthy independent thinking and responses to inevitable situations.
Respect Developing Capacities
Some teen struggles are literally all in their heads, according to Dr. Frances Jensen, a professor at the University
of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, in Philadelphia. “The brain is the last organ to mature, and isn’t fully complete until young people reach their late 20s. This allows the brain to adapt to its environment, which can be both good and bad,” says Jensen, author of The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults.
Compounding the challenge, the frontal lobes, responsible for higher
24 Central Florida natural awakenings
functions like insight, judgment, impulse control and empathy, fully mature last; it’s no coincidence that teens struggle in these areas, according to Jensen. The plasticity of the teenage brain is optimal for learning and adaption, but without the frontal lobe feedback, it’s a challenge for them to moderate the heightened emotions, novelty seeking and sexual impulses adolescents are also experiencing. “We expect teenagers to act
rationally, but there are many reasons why their brains aren’t taking them there,” says Jensen. “Acknowledging this can lower frustration levels for everyone.”
Create a Safe Haven Teens learn more from experience than lectures, so parents should facilitate positive experiences and infl uences at home, advises Carla Atherton, director of The Healthy Family Formula, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, which fosters family well-being by holistically addressing root causes of poor health. Such activities can include regularly preparing meals together and going for family walks, rather than eating dinner in front of the TV.
“Doing everything you can to connect with kids while they are in an environment you can control gives them a good foundation they can take into the world,” says Atherton, the mother of three teens. Parents have to give trust to gain kids’ trust stresses educator Naomi Katz, of Galilee, Israel, author of Beautiful: Being an Empowered Young Woman. “Create an environment where kids feel like they don’t have to hide or lie about anything,” Katz says. She also encourages parents to empower adolescents in decision making: Rather than telling them not to try drugs or alcohol “because I said so,” provide them real facts to help them draw their own conclusions.
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