Your Teenager

The teenage years bring much anxious care for concerned parents. They see their child transform from a pleasant child into a stranger with a bad attitude! While these are trying times for parents, keep in mind that adolescence is a very difficult stage of life for your teenager as well. Adolescence can be challenging for your teenager, why is this the case? Many changes take place during puberty; at the root of these changes for young men are the glands, which include the thyroid, the adrenals and gonads. For young women hormone secretions began to work in their bodies. The physical changes of adolescences bring emotional changes as well.

THE TEENAGE BRAIN

Your teenager’s brain is also under construction, brain scanners show that different parts of the brain mature at different rates, and according to “Andrew Garner, M.D., FAAP some parts of the brain — such as the prefrontal cortex (PFC) that sits right behind the eyes — do not appear fully mature until 24 years old!” Therefore your teenagers frontal lobe is not fully connected. The prefrontal cortex manages cognitive behaviors and personality expression, this decision making part of the brain is accessed slower in teenagers than adult because the nerve cells that connect the teenager’s frontal lobes with the rest of their brain are sluggish. Perhaps this explains the increased desire teenagers have for speed, danger, rebellion and an indifference to planning and priorities which is noticed in various degrees in teen behavior. Traits that can lead to harm and danger.

THE OTHER SIDE OF ADOLESCENCE

One the other hand, what would the world be like without the fun-loving, bohemian, whimsical, creative and daring side of the teenager? Music, film, literature, technology, art and sports would not be the same without the teenage free spirit. Consider the teen prodigies like the Beatles, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, Steven Spielberg, Tiger Woods, Serena and Venus Williams, Albert Einstein and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and many others who made there day-view on the world scene as teenagers, in fact teenagers have significantly changed the world that live in.

WHAT CAN PARENTS DO TO HELP?

· Educate yourself on the changes your teen is experiencing during adolescences

· Spend, quality time with your teenager

. Commend your child for the good things he does

· Give them direction, even if they seem as if you are irritating them

· Hold your ground regarding house rules and discipline

· Allow them room to grow, and above all never give up on them

Remember that adolescence is a stage of life that teenagers pass though, help your teenager ride the wave to safe waters, as they move into adulthood; they will thank you for your loving concern and support.

Source:http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124119468: Your Youth Getting the Best out of it (published by Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society of Pennsylvania)