BS: For parents of teenagers

Subject: BS: For parents of teenagers
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 12:27 PM

On NPR: The Teen Brain: It's Just Not Grown Up Yet

When adolescence hit Frances Jensen's sons, she often found herself wondering, like all parents of teenagers, "What were you thinking?"

"It's a resounding mantra of parents and teachers," says Jensen, who's a pediatric neurologist at Children's Hospital in Boston.

Like when son number one, Andrew, turned 16, dyed his hair black with red stripes and went off to school wearing studded leather and platform shoes. And his grades went south.

"I watched my child morph into another being, and yet I knew deep down inside it was the same Andrew," Jensen says. Suddenly her own children seemed like an alien species.

Jensen is a Harvard expert on epilepsy, not adolescent brain development. As she coped with her boys' sour moods and their exasperating assumption that somebody else will pick up their dirty clothes, she decided to investigate what neuroscientists are discovering about teenagers' brains that makes them behave that way.

...

ensen says scientists used to think human brain development was pretty complete by age 10. Or as she puts it, that "a teenage brain is just an adult brain with fewer miles on it."

But it's not. To begin with, she says, a crucial part of the brain — the frontal lobes — are not fully connected. Really.

"It's the part of the brain that says: 'Is this a good idea? What is the consequence of this action?' " Jensen says. "It's not that they don't have a frontal lobe. And they can use it. But they're going to access it more slowly."

...

But that's not the only big difference in teenagers' brains. Nature made the brains of children and adolescents excitable. Their brain chemistry is tuned to be responsive to everything in their environment. After all, that's what makes kids learn so easily.

But this can work in ways that are not so good. Take alcohol, for example. Or nicotine, cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy ...

"Addiction has been shown to be essentially a form of 'learning,' " Jensen says. After all, if the brain is wired to form new connections in response to the environment, and potent psychoactive drugs suddenly enter that environment, those substances are "tapping into a much more robust habit-forming ability that adolescents have, compared to adults."

So studies have shown that a teenager who smokes pot will still show cognitive deficits days later. An adult who smokes the same dose will return to cognitive baseline much faster.

---

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: BS: For parents of teenagers
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 12:42 PM

You know how sometimes you have the perfect convergence of time, attention, and the radio is on? I was driving my 17-year-old to school and that story came on. It was loud enough to hear and he sat and listened. I resisted reaching out to turn it up--I didn't want him to think I was reinforcing that he listen to it. The story ended as we wound around the school to the drop off point. I'm so glad that not only I heard it, but he heard it!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: For parents of teenagers
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 12:50 PM

I read a report on another piece of research a year or two ago. It said that, during puberty and the teens, the frontal lobe is developing so rapidly that other parts of the brain actually take over some of its work, and some of its functions are considerably diminished for a few years. One of the functions of the frontal lobe is that it is the seat of empathy. The evidence suggested that this is the reason for the self-obsession and selfishness which are often a component of the teenage years. Interesting stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: For parents of teenagers
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 01:17 PM

I tell people that when my daughter was 13 I threatened to run away from home.

Subject: RE: BS: For parents of teenagers
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 01:59 PM

My son turn 15 next week... he's a good kid, but to creatively misquote someone (apparently not Thomas Jefferson), the price of teen safety is eternal vigilance -- except that you can't actually be watching all the time, so the price of parenthood is wrinkles (if not worse). Sigh.

~ Becky in Tucso

Subject: RE: BS: For parents of teenagers
From: Acorn4
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 02:00 PM

When my step-daughter turned 13 I told her she would be allowed 5 opinions a year!

Subject: RE: BS: For parents of teenagers
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 02:34 PM

I hear the program, too. Explained a few things from when my kids were teens.

Subject: RE: BS: For parents of teenagers
From: paula t
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 02:56 PM

A few years ago, I watched a TV programme about teenage development. An experiment was conducted in which teenagers were shown photographs of people and asked to interpret the emotions portrayed. One particular 'photo showed a face quite obviously portraying fear. Most teenagers, and even people in their early 20s,interpreted it as anger.The researchers posed the question as to whether a person reacting in a fearful way in some situations could therefore be seen as being angry and therefore a threat.
Food for thought....

Subject: RE: BS: For parents of teenagers
From: Bettynh
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 03:25 PM

In some situations a fearful person CAN be a threat. I always told my kids to be especially careful not to scare a cop, for example. Kent State happened because the "soldiers" given guns were afraid.

Subject: RE: BS: For parents of teenagers
From: Amergin
Date: 01 Mar 10 - 07:12 PM

yeah I recall hearing the same question being asked me when I was a teenager....like when I pierced my ear with a safety pin.

Subject: RE: BS: For parents of teenagers
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 03:42 AM

Hmmm... food for thought there.

Is there any proof that for some adults (say... oh, I dunno... off the top of my head, no-one particular in mind.... men) the joining process never occurs?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: For parents of teenagers
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 04:51 AM

I didn't rebel at all when I was a teenager, never felt the need to. I've made up for it since hitting 40 though. ;0)

Maybe me lobes have drifted apart..?

Hormones play a far more important part I'd say...and modern parenting too, because if I'd have behaved like some kids are allowed to these days, I'd have been in for a real rollicking from mum and Dad.

Did the 'behaviour' start with the invention of 'the teenager', I wonder?

Subject: RE: BS: For parents of teenagers
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 02 Mar 10 - 02:04 PM

I would like to know what kind of teenagers they used to reach the conclusions.

Are they talking about the brains of a typical modern kid, one who's watched TV, computers, movies, phones and games for hundreds of hours? Such a kid misses many experiences which I would consider normal in developing the brain.

How does the brain of a kid in our society compare with the brain of a kid in the Amazon jungle? On an Amish farm? From a modern home with very little video?

[I ask the question, but I'm not going to hang around for the answer. The only kids I know are teenagers who were raised with very little video, and they are dears and I love them.)

Subject: RE: BS: For parents of teenagers
From: GUEST,999
Date: 03 Mar 10 - 11:11 AM

"I ask the question, but I'm not going to hang around for the answer."

That post belongs in the joke thread.