Adolescent Brain Development 101
Knowledge is power, and knowing how their brains are developing can have an enormous impact on students’ ability to understand their own motivations and emotions. It is vital that educators make and take the time to talk with students about the basics of adolescent brain development. There are several great resources online that offer visual aids for educators, but much of what is important for Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) purposes is summarized here.
Adolescence is a time of rapid growth, both with respect to physical maturation and brain development. This can cause challenges during middle and high school as kids begin to look more and more like little adults when their brains haven’t quite caught up. It’s tempting to expect tweens and teens to be more ready for complex decision-making than they actually are. Even if they seem proficient at some “adult” tasks, much of their most important brain growth has yet to happen.
The area of the brain called the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is responsible for reasoning ability, creative problem-solving, attention, and learning from mistakes. The PFC isn’t fully developed until we are in our twenties, and even then, it can be hijacked by another portion of the brain called the amygdala—which is known as the emotion center. The amygdala is also known as the fight/flight/freeze center of the brain, and it serves a very important function, but it can make our lives difficult when the threats we face are more about who sits with us at lunch and less about being attacked by a hungry predator.
During the adolescent years (roughly between the ages of ten and twenty), the amygdala is physically larger than it ever will be again, which explains why teens can be emotionally volatile at times. Every piece of information that enters a teen brain is processed through this emotion center first, and if the trigger is big enough, it will shut down the brain’s executive functions.
Figure 1.1 shows roughly how brain development occurs from left to right. Until the PFC is fully mature, our capacity to act more rationally and less emotionally is stunted. This is why it is important to be a little more patient with teens. Expecting an adolescent to “act like an adult” is similar to asking a child to swim the length of the pool at their first swim lesson. Executive functions need to be practiced for years before they can be relied upon, and the infrastructure needs to be there for us to access. The good news is that the more we practice, the better we get.
Figure 1.1 What Happens Where in the Brain. Source: Adapted from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as featured in the Wall Street Journal.
Key Point #1: The adolescent brain isn’t fully ready for executive functions, but practice during these years is key to develop the “muscle” for rational thought and good decision-making. Learning to think critically, make abstract connections, and explore new ideas is important during the middle and high school years.
Acknowledging the power and physiology of the amygdala helps teens understand that it is normal to be ruled by their emotions during these years. Because this portion of the brain is responsible for fear, motivation, and physical responses to pain and pleasure, teens are more susceptible to anxiety, adrenaline, and addiction. Adolescents are more likely to make spur of the moment choices, process emotional slights as threats, and be less able to articulate their feelings without a lot of practice.
Key Point #2: We are biologically driven to feel overwhelmed with emotion between the ages of ten and twenty. Impulsivity and strong emotions are a key part of adolescence, and blaming or shaming won’t change that. Learning from mistakes strengthens the PFC and helps ensure that as we get older, we will be less likely to act in ways that are counterproductive to our own health and well-being.
Learning and Communication Styles
Before students embark on this important work, it is helpful for them to have an understanding of how they learn best. Someone who primarily processes information by listening (auditory) may struggle or push back when they’re asked to read something and understand it. We tend to communicate with others instinctively in the way we prefer to learn—even if we don’t realize it—so knowing how other people process information can help us communicate more effectively with them.
The VARK quiz is an online test that only takes a few minutes to complete and helps determine whether an individual’s personal learning style is primarily visual, auditory, read/write, or kinesthetic. Students armed with this information can advocate more effectively for themselves by asking for what they need in any given situation. For educators, it can help to tailor your work by mixing up the way you present material so that it’s meaningful for all of the students in the classroom.
Educators are highly encouraged to have their students take this quiz prior to diving into this curriculum. The quiz can be found here: http://vark-learn.com.