Critical Thinking, Self-Control and the Changing Teenage Brain (Part 1)
You stare at your 13-year-old daughter as she defiantly folds her arms and rolls her eyes upward.
How your simple request to ask her not to exceed 100 text messages per day can be taken with such drama is beyond you.
You sigh and wonder what has happened to the wonderful little girl that used to adore you.
If you are the parent of a pre-teen or an early teenager, perhaps you can relate to this scene.
It is common knowledge that hormonal activity during this period of your child's life can cause changes that can affect their body, mood, and interests.
However, less well-known is the research that shows this to be a great time of change in the structure of their brain as well.
Just before puberty there is a time of great growth in the area of the brain called the prefrontal cortex (PFC) (Sowell, et al.
, 1998).
It is located in the front of the brain directly behind the forehead.
During this time period, the PFC greatly overproduces a large number of synapses (connections between brain cells), and then subsequently, over the next several years of adolescence, it prunes back the connections that are not being used and strengthens the ones that are (Giedd, et al.
, 1999).
The benefit to this process is that it affords the brain a great amount of flexibility because depending on the child's environment and activities, the brain can develop in many different ways.
It is analogous to hosting a week-long party when you do not know what food your guests will like.
The first night of the party you offer so many different choices that the guests are bound to find something that they really like.
After the first night you would be able to ascertain which foods were being eaten and which ones weren't.
You would stop making the foods that were not eaten and you would focus on the foods that the guests enjoyed.
So what does this mean for you and your beautiful, ever-changing, and sometimes precocious youngster? Firstly, it means that if children don't learn certain skills during a period of synaptic growth, it may be more difficult to learn those skills later.
Secondly, since the PFC is home to arguably some of the most important attributes that a child can learn to help ensure their later success in life (things like critical thinking, showing good judgment and exercising self-control), it may be wise for parents to take advantage of this flexible period of brain growth and pruning to ensure that their children become strong in these very important skills (Crews, He, & Hodge, 2006).
If you would like to read about specific steps that you can take to see that your child is developing these skills during early adolescence, be sure to read the second part of this two-part series that will be coming soon.
Until then ask your daughter to unfold her arms, give her a hug and a kiss and remind her that as hard as it may seem to "only" send 100 texts per day, that is the limit.
Notes: 1 There is also a major period of growth and pruning that happens in the womb in during subsequent years after birth.
This first major growth period is believed to develop about 95% of the brain.
2 Growth also is known to occur in the corpus callosum, some parietal areas and in the cerebellum during the adolescent pruning period as well.
Works Cited Crews, F.
, He, J.
, & Hodge, C.
(2006).
Adolescent cortical development: a critical period of vulnerability for addiction.
Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, 86, 189-199.
Giedd, J.
N.
, Blumenthal, J.
, Jeffries, N.
O.
, Castellanos, F.
X.
, & Liu, H.
, Zijdenbos, A.
, Paus, T.
, Evans, A.
C.
, Rapoport, J.
L.
(1999).
Brain development during childhood adolescence: a longitudinal mri study.
Nature Neuroscience, 2(10), 861-863.
Sowell, E.
R.
, Thompson, P.
M.
, Holmes, C.
J.
, Batth, R.
, & Jernigan, T.
L.
(1998).
Localizing age-related changes in brain structure between childhood and adolescence using statistical parametric mapping.
NeuroImage, 9, 587-597.
© 2012 All Rights Reserved
How your simple request to ask her not to exceed 100 text messages per day can be taken with such drama is beyond you.
You sigh and wonder what has happened to the wonderful little girl that used to adore you.
If you are the parent of a pre-teen or an early teenager, perhaps you can relate to this scene.
It is common knowledge that hormonal activity during this period of your child's life can cause changes that can affect their body, mood, and interests.
However, less well-known is the research that shows this to be a great time of change in the structure of their brain as well.
Just before puberty there is a time of great growth in the area of the brain called the prefrontal cortex (PFC) (Sowell, et al.
, 1998).
It is located in the front of the brain directly behind the forehead.
During this time period, the PFC greatly overproduces a large number of synapses (connections between brain cells), and then subsequently, over the next several years of adolescence, it prunes back the connections that are not being used and strengthens the ones that are (Giedd, et al.
, 1999).
The benefit to this process is that it affords the brain a great amount of flexibility because depending on the child's environment and activities, the brain can develop in many different ways.
It is analogous to hosting a week-long party when you do not know what food your guests will like.
The first night of the party you offer so many different choices that the guests are bound to find something that they really like.
After the first night you would be able to ascertain which foods were being eaten and which ones weren't.
You would stop making the foods that were not eaten and you would focus on the foods that the guests enjoyed.
So what does this mean for you and your beautiful, ever-changing, and sometimes precocious youngster? Firstly, it means that if children don't learn certain skills during a period of synaptic growth, it may be more difficult to learn those skills later.
Secondly, since the PFC is home to arguably some of the most important attributes that a child can learn to help ensure their later success in life (things like critical thinking, showing good judgment and exercising self-control), it may be wise for parents to take advantage of this flexible period of brain growth and pruning to ensure that their children become strong in these very important skills (Crews, He, & Hodge, 2006).
If you would like to read about specific steps that you can take to see that your child is developing these skills during early adolescence, be sure to read the second part of this two-part series that will be coming soon.
Until then ask your daughter to unfold her arms, give her a hug and a kiss and remind her that as hard as it may seem to "only" send 100 texts per day, that is the limit.
Notes: 1 There is also a major period of growth and pruning that happens in the womb in during subsequent years after birth.
This first major growth period is believed to develop about 95% of the brain.
2 Growth also is known to occur in the corpus callosum, some parietal areas and in the cerebellum during the adolescent pruning period as well.
Works Cited Crews, F.
, He, J.
, & Hodge, C.
(2006).
Adolescent cortical development: a critical period of vulnerability for addiction.
Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, 86, 189-199.
Giedd, J.
N.
, Blumenthal, J.
, Jeffries, N.
O.
, Castellanos, F.
X.
, & Liu, H.
, Zijdenbos, A.
, Paus, T.
, Evans, A.
C.
, Rapoport, J.
L.
(1999).
Brain development during childhood adolescence: a longitudinal mri study.
Nature Neuroscience, 2(10), 861-863.
Sowell, E.
R.
, Thompson, P.
M.
, Holmes, C.
J.
, Batth, R.
, & Jernigan, T.
L.
(1998).
Localizing age-related changes in brain structure between childhood and adolescence using statistical parametric mapping.
NeuroImage, 9, 587-597.
© 2012 All Rights Reserved
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