IST 605: Adolescent Development

When you were born, most of your brain function was dedicated to learning to crawl and later walk, make sounds and later speak, learn words associated with objects and simple concepts which led to you learning your first language or perhaps 2 languages if you were exposed to a multi-language environment. As you grew and mastered those functions, your brain began pruning or washing away those connections and at the same time began expanding or growing more complex connections related to more complicated abstract thinking. Whew! That’s a lot going on in your head. No wonder you sometimes feel emotional. I don’t think adults would be able to handle all of that. So go easy on yourself. There is a scientific explanation for what you are going through. It is a unique period in your life. The developments that take place now will last your lifetime and there are things you can do and not do to ensure that your brain is developing to become the best it can be. image provided by pngtree.com

Piaget's 4 stages of cognitive development are illustrated and explained in this fun short video.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the nation’s medical research agency — making important discoveries that improve health and save lives. It is the place to go for the most up-to-date research and discoveries including resources on adolescent development. You can access a free PDF copy of the 493-page book, The Promise of Adolescence: Realizing Opportunity for All Youth through NIH. This resource will explain the bio-psycho-social elements of adolescent development and how this knowledge can improve services for all youth.

Neurobehavioral, morphological, neurochemical, and pharmacological evidence suggests that the brain remains under construction during adolescence.  Maturation of the Adolescent Brain explains what shapes the adolescent brain's journey to adulthood.