What do you know about your teens' brain development?
Most of us don’t learn specifics about when and how our brain is developed. But understanding your teens' brain development can help you foster healthy development for them.
So what do you need to know about teenage brain development?
Well, by age six, your child’s brain is about 90-95% grown. However, just because their brains are nearly adult sized so young, they aren’t done developing until well into adolescence. And within adolescence, the brain undergoes a sort of “remodeling.” In this remodeling, what’s called the gray matter of the brain–which is really unused thinking and processing connections inside of the brain–are eliminated and other, more useful, connections are strengthened.
This process begins at the back of the brain, moving forward from there, “remodeling” as it goes. Understanding this can explain changes in behavior between adolescence–when there’s often a lack of consideration for consequences, lots of risk taking behavior, and poor impulse control–and young adulthood, as the front of the brain, which gets “remodeled” last, is the part of the brian responsible for decision making.
So, while the decision making part of the brain is still underdeveloped, the amygdala does most of the work when it comes to making decisions in teenage brains.
What is the amygdala? The amygdala is the part of the brain linked with emotion, instinctive behavior, impulses and aggression. Knowing this, we can see why teenagers can seem emotional, “dramatic,” immature, or frequently engaging in risky behaviors. (Their brains literally are not done maturing!)
However–the teen brain has a lot of plasticity, which means that teenage brains are easily able to change and adapt to their environment. So with challenging and creative mental activities or academic work, their brains can learn and mature! But what this also means is how your teen spends their time is important, and has a direct impact on their brain development. They may need some guidance!
So, what else can you do to nurture healthy brain development in your teen?
Encourage independence and healthy risks:
Can you help your teen foster a strong sense of their own identity? That way, they can feel confident in acting true to themselves, and take healthy risks, rather than risks brought on by fear or pressure or a poorly thought out impulse.
Give them healthy, creative outlets for their emotions:
If your teen can learn to identify what they are feeling as they are feeling it, and take time to process why they’re feeling it, rather than acting on it right away, they can learn to better control those risky impulses, and not be controlled by their overwhelming emotions. In order to do this, they need to have some sort of method for expressing or exploring their feelings once they’ve identified them. This could be through art or talking or music or movement–help them find a way that works for them.
Help them develop and strengthen their problem solving skills:
Don’t solve their problems for them, but help them walk through their options, so they can figure out how they want to handle things for themselves. This also teaches them the process of problem solving, so they’ll be able to apply that again on their own once they’ve practiced it enough with you.
Encourage good sleep hygiene:
Teens need between eight and ten hours of sleep a night, but most are definitely not getting that. Help your teen establish a more reliable sleep routine so they can get a decent number of restful hours of sleep. Also help them make sure their environment is good for sleeping. Are their bed and pillow comfortable, or are they waking up with some kind of ache that interferes with their sleep? Is their sleep disturbed by something else? Is it quiet or dark enough in their bedroom? Do they use screens right up until they fall asleep?
Helping them establish better sleep hygiene will show up in so many areas of their life; it will help with their mood, their ability to regulate their emotions, their overall physical health, their problem solving skills, etc. Good sleep is so important, especially for teens!