Adolescent Development

Discovering ways to optimise development of adolescents in Aotearoa New Zealand. Investigating resources currently out there and why it's important to invest in our youth.

[chocolatefisher]

Wrapping a Tumblr!

 This picture of a confused-looking child attempting to wrap a present is how I often feel about 'finishing' things in my life.  We can learn an extraordinary amount in a short space of time, bundle the theories and research up and export it into an exam or assignment.  Often it arrives neat and presentable, sometimes the tape doesn’t stick properly and parts fall out… But of course the reason most of us took this Adolescent Development paper is the practical learnings.  Hopefully we can have a positive impact in our communities using the knowledge we’ve accrued in the last three months.  If there is one thing that’s been embedded into me by this course it’s the pivotal nature of adolescence and how supporting a single individual can make a tangible difference to the rest of their life.

Aside from a personal Facebook account, Tumblr was my first foray into social media.  I enjoyed the intimacy that can be created between followers and the immediate sharing of ideas so a common or controversial idea can quickly gain momentum online.  This phenomenon in itself is interesting to watch, and the concerns around privacy are justified.  Remembering that anything posted online can potentially be read by anyone, choosing personal examples to support research that I felt comfortable publically sharing was important and took quite a bit of thought.  My technology skills were definitely stretched! 

I enjoyed the cumulative nature of Tumblr.   The ability to scroll through earlier posts when I was unsure of how I’d be able to participate in the project with screen-reading software make me feel like I’ve developed in some areas :) It's been very different from any other assignment I've done and similarly to other students it's a bit scary for a peer to be marking a big part of our overall mark and it might have been helpful to get some halfway feedback, but I understand the class size can make this tricky.

I found Cat’s weekly tips and posting ideas helpful.  The freedom to post things that interested us individually, then watch, listen, and read a range of popular and academic resources was great.  Course content was interesting and it has been awesome following all the ideas and discussions of the whole group…I do agree with the thoughts to split the class, maybe into two which may make ideas easier to follow and to build rapport with student bloggers (sloggers?).   I’ve found it particularly interesting to be posting with the 2014 NZ General Election happening in the background.  It’s certainly made me realise the power young people can and should have on society.

American author Richard Ford said “My job is to have empathy and curiosity for things I’ve never done.”  Adolescents come from all sorts of backgrounds and I hope I continue to be empathetic and curious forever. All the best 275.208, arohanui :)

Mary

[chocolatefisher]

Tim Minchin, the former UWA arts student described as "sublimely talented, witty, smart and unabashedly offensive" in a musical career that has taken the wor...

Tim Minchin receiving an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of Western Australia.  He's hilarious and has metaphors for many life lessons for late adolescents who are about to graduate. He reminds us of nine life lessons which I've summed up (and slightly censored).

1.       You don’t have to have a dream, pursue short-term goals with vigour.

2.       Don’t seek happiness.

3.       You’re lucky.

4.       Exercise.

5.       Be hard on your opinions, constantly and thoroughly examine them.

6.       Be a teacher.

7.       Define yourself by what you love.

8.       Respect people with less power than you.

9.       Don’t rush.

[2roseslisa]

School Senco - Special Education Needs Coordinator

The Senco of the the school is responsible for the creation and management of a ‘Learning Support Programme’ for students with specific learning needs.  This may be physical disabilities, sensory impairment, speech and language requirements, cognitive disabilities, emotional and/or behavioural difficulties, or special learning difficulties.  It is important that adolescents get help from schools as it is a challenging time with puberty, let alone if any of the above needs are not met by the school.

[chocolatefisher]

Totally agree.  SENCOs are vitally important as they are specially trained to help those students with an impairment.  My experience with the SENCO at high school made my education a very positive experience.  She coordinated a teacher aide and Resource Teachers - Vision (RTVs) so that I had equal opportunities to learn alongside my sighted peers.

[chocolatefisher]

Two models of teaching and learning are compared: Directed Instruction which emphasizes individualization and Constructivist which is more cooperative.

Great comparison of constructivist and direct learning.  In our Tumblr projects we are using mostly constructivist learning by finding sources of information we are interested, in compiling it ourselves and collaborating with each other to increase knowledge.  Other parts of our Adolescent Development course have been more direct learning; working on specific skills to be able to answer quiz questions around research or cognitive development areas.  Many effective teachers use a mixture of both methods (Santrock, 2010). 

[chocolatefisher]

This clip shows one of the positive stories as an outcome of the Big Buddy initiative.  Big Buddy is a nationwide programme for young boys (7 – 14 years) based on the idea positive male role models in their lives help them to grow into good men and decrease risky behaviours, echoed by Santrock (2010).  In New Zealand, many boys are raised by single mothers or have circumstances placed upon them, resulting in an absent father figure.  Big Buddy NZ screens male adults who volunteer to be a companion and do ‘guy things’ with their little buddy.  Once three months of vetting and information training has been passed Big Buddy matches a boy with a buddy who has similar interests.  This is a great scheme and helps the psychosocial development by helping curb angry outbursts adolescent boys experience as well as doing physical things and problem-solving cognitively.    

[babystanley15-deactivated201410]

Charter Schools

Here is a link about Charter Schools; personally, I believe that charter schools are a brilliant idea as it benefits students, parents, teachers and the community. 

Santrock mentions that involving parents and community leaders into schools, a flexible curriculum are one of the many ideas that can help improve middle schools, I agree with this as the curriculum may not be suitable for some students.

[life2getha-blog]

This will be interesting in the future to see what the success rate is with respect to graduations and employment.  Statistics New Zealand (2011) reports that over 70,000 youth between the ages of 15-24 are either not in employment, education or training.  As Santrock (2012) points out with Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory and Gardner’s Eight Frames of Mind, adolescents have many ways of expressing their intelligence, not just academically.  I agree with the charter schools concept and look forward to seeing the achievements of youth who attend and applaud the initiative of those who are trying to improve the lives of teenagers in Aotearoa/New Zealand.

[chocolatefisher]

Charter schools are a concept which would be based off models in the US, Canada and Europe (Burr, 2011).  I'm not sure how I feel about them as they won't be run by the Ministry of Education, but rather by other organisations and sponsors who then become responsible for setting curriculums, educational targets, school length, teacher pay and new qualifications etc.  Teachers also do not have to be qualified or registered.  Of course I accept we all know an adult non-teachers who would probably benefit the education of adolescents more than that qualified (but unmotivated/ taciturn/ unprofessional/ disorganised) teacher who imparts a long-term dislike for their subject.

It is great to see the diversity emerging through the educational system in terms of subjects and testing methods being implemented and modified to give students as good a chance as possible to develop through their school years.  Already with NCEA there are different standards in the same subjects that schools can focus on and around 60 high schools offer International Baccalaureate (IB) exams.  Having even more options  which would be run independently could seem like a waste of resources.  Alternately, schools that can create well-rounded young adults and lower the number of young people with no work experience and no qualifications are needed.

Burr, L. (2011) What are Charter Schools? Retrieved from http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/what-are-charter-schools-2011120814

[chocolatefisher]

Find those special attributes and bring them to the fore. Pursue and enjoy the things that you are good at, even if they do not necessarily get you the academic pass at exam time because these skills will be incredibly impacting as you journey into adulthood and find your future career.

Richard Taylor (artist/founder of Weta Workshop) I love this advice Richard Taylor offers.  Many other well-known people have dyslexia - just check out their achievements and wonder how our lives would be different if they weren't encouraged in childhood and adolescence if our world would be missing something.  http://www.dyslexia.com/famous.htm 

[shirley-thorby-blog-deactivated]

'I AM DYSLEXIC' short documentary

This documentary illustrates the experiences of a number of people from childhood to adulthood growing up with dyslexia.Their struggles to learn in a typical school environment, feeling different, being mis-understood by teachers, being bullied. The documentary comes from the point of view that dyslexia is not a disability, but a gift. Several of the participants are clearly gifted in the creative arts. Santrock (2014) expresses that gifted children are those who have above average intellectual ability, but readily admits that this view is rather narrow and doesn’t really give credence to those who are gifted in the creative arts.

Ref. Santock, J.W. (2014). Adolescence (15th ed.). New York, McGraw-Hill Education.

[chocolatefisher]

I really enjoyed the different perspectives of people who have dyslexia.  In particular their sociohistoric educational experiences.  The experiences of those who have lived with dyslexia their lives before being diagnosed in middle adulthood to the couple of individuals in late childhood who had been diagnosed around age 8 vary considerably.

With a few exceptions, nearly all the people interviewed had negative experiences at school whether they had a diagnosis of dyslexia or not.  Educational systems, individual teachers and attitude of families or private tutors can make all the difference to someone with dyslexia.  As a form of learning impairment (one of the people says 'dyslexia is not a disability, or an illness') most schools have resources to help young people with the skills they find most difficult due to dyslexia.  Social stigma of people who have trouble reading or writing, and teachers putting those individuals in the 'too-hard basket' can hinder development on all levels.  Yes, as the video shows, creativity and organisational skills are often highly developed in those with dyslexia.  We have to question where society would be without many prominent people who just happen to be dyslexic.   

[abloodstar]

http://www.surflifesaving.org.nz/organisation/about-us/about-us/

Life saving NZ link

[chocolatefisher]

We all live really close to some form of water body in New Zealand.  Though the Aquablacks (NZ's surf lifesaving team) just won back-to-back world championship titles many adolescents can't swim well enough to save themselves or understand water currents.  Taking risks and the earlier development of amygdala compared to prefrontal cortex may be to blame for some of the statistics.  However, with further swimming instruction and education of water safety more lives could be saved.

Equally, swimming is a great sport for adolescents.  It can be competitive or social, you can swim by yourself or with a squad and it helps those with asthma increase lung capacity and control breathing cycles.  Alongside these benefits swimming is low-impact and develops muscle tone all over the body...6am training can be a slight killer though!

[chocolatefisher]

Good example of sociohistoric contexts.  Interview by a Victoria University student of a London University student who studied in 1948. 

[chocolatefisher]

As part of my resource project I investigated the Central Regional Health School (CRHS) which is based in Wellington.  Part of the service is for adolescent with acute mental health needs.  This link refers to the Rangatahi Inpatient service where teens can access educational opportunities in a safe environment with specialist care.  Having different levels of care such as in Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Model helps adolescents who are struggling with their mental health. 

In the microsystem are people directly linked to the individual - peers who are seen day-to-day, family, teachers.  The meosystem layer is how the microsystems interact (parents treatment of the teen vs teacher treatment).  If there is consistency in what behaviour is endorsed and what is taught to be inappropriate the development of the individual is less stressful, leading to fewer mental health issues.  The exosystem includes influences on the individual that aren't face-to-face...a classic is the school Board of Trustees.  That example is useful here too as the Board's decisions have an impact on the education and support and teaching someone in the Rangatahi Unit is offered. 

The final layers are the macrosystem and chronosystem.  Macrosystems involve general, overarching influences from society such as ethnicity and socioeconomic status as well as government laws.  If the government decided to take away the Health School programme that would have a drastically negative impact on many students around NZ.  Chronosystems are changes over time - if the sociocultural expectations of a person change over time this may also influence their development.

[chocolatefisher]

Easy-to-read biography of Margaret Mead and her initial work into Samoan adolescent girls. Her Sociocultural View of Adolescence - with family and sociocultural life influencing their development  contrastingly to Western societies who had previously paralleled Hall's biological approach.  Although her work was criticised by some, she gave the field of adolescent development a great theory to conduct further research from. 

[chocolatefisher]

Resilience skills can be learned. Teens can benefit from ten APA Help Center resilience tips.

Some great tips for adolescence to understand and help themselves achieve a more resilient lifestyle. Resilience aides moral decision making, problem solving and recovering from setbacks of all kinds.

Block (1993) illustrated that children (3yrs) who had low emotional control also exhibited low resilience which continued into adolescence.  It's important to build up resilience in young kids as these traits are likely to be stable and are a protective factor against many negative factors in adolescence and later on such as poor nutritional decisions, low self-esteem and increased mental health issues. 

[chocolatefisher]

We only use 10% of our brain. We evolved from chimps. Dairy foods increase mucous. Pfffff! These and 45 other myths & misconceptions debunked. Solidly.

As we near the end of 275.208 Adolescent Development ( :( ) we've learnt a great deal about the interaction of body, mind and soul.  Development at all ages is contributed towards by biological, cognitive and psychosocial/psychoemotional factors.  We've also assimilated thoughts of famous theorists and discovered why critical thinking is important...here's some fun facts, well, rather myths to ponder!

[sharynetuari]

Gender beliefs affected by cultural beliefs

I agree with the Gender  Schema Theory saying different factors (cognitive, biological, environmental and cultural)cause an individual to become gendered in society.  I see gender roles, beliefs and sexism are greatly influenced by culture and upbringing.

[chocolatefisher]

Sandra Bem's theory was first introduced in 1981 and I agree, it's mainly a cognitive approach and includes all elements of development in the adolescent.  Forming your own concept of gender in yourself, as well as how gender is perceived in a larger context is driven by expectations and assimilating ideas from the culture and beliefs passed onto you in your childhood, adolescence and sometimes beyond.

Splitting how people are gendered, Bem uses the four categories of sex-typed, cross-sex-typed, androgynous, and undifferentiated. People who are sex-typed integrate and process cultural information aligning with their traditional gender. Cross-sex-typed individuals assimilate information that aligns with the opposite gender. Androgynous individuals identify and assimilate both genders. Those who are undifferentiated do not example processing of sex-typed information. 

To form a schema people use social cues around them.  I grew up in a traditional Pakeha household where gender stereotypes were adhered to, not verbally enforced: although my dad shared the cooking my schemas of masculinity, femininity and gender roles were subtly influenced by my environment, language my family and peer group used and I guess, biologically having the body and brain of a female. Potentially being blind also meant I concentrated on language - how men and women talked to each other in different situations and picked up on those cues more than visual signals...it's taken this course for me to think about that!

Flatting in Newtown and interacting with diverse communities has given me a far different perspective of what I would previously have prescribed as 'normal' gender schemas.  Recently I went to a friend's house.  She lives with her adolescent daughter and female partner.  Her daughter has just turned 12 and the table conversation included discussions around gender-typing, sexuality and puberty.  Those are things that my family never talked about so candidly when I was a young adolescent.    

I found myself contemplating how we each form schemas.  Extensively it's from those closest to us, who we trust and identify with (I and my 12yr old friend have grown up in Wellington in a very similar sociohistorical era, but the communities we associated with in early adolescence are different).  Those ideas seamlessly absorb into our current schemas.  There's always the option for an individual to challenge their own schemas though and mould them if a major life event or environmental change causes them to reconsider their opinions.  Plastic development at its finest.

[chocolatefisher]

I had the pleasure of meeting Same a couple of weeks ago.  He's 16, in the middle of his adolescence and figuring out his identity as a skier, student and young person.  This article is about an Outward Bound experience he and other teenagers who live with a disability will attend with the goal of honing leadership skills. Outward Bound in itself is an great organisation helping develop young (and not so young) people from all over New Zealand through experiencing the outdoors.

Erikson's psychosocial crisis of identity vs identity confusion during adolescence is the fifth stage of development (Santrock, 2010).  Individuals question their reasons for being, who they want to become and how they can face situations they're in.  Outward Bound will give Sam and his group many activities to work on as a team as well as solitary time.  They will be given time to think through possible selves, leadership opportunities and desires by themselves as well as talk to others who have a disability.  

Sam and his 'watch' (group) at Outward Bound will be challenged physically, mentally and emotionally.  Being outside comfort zones will allow them to be physically stretched, problem solve together and talk about ways they can achieve as a group that they couldn't individually.  Arriving back into their communities they will be able to share newfound skills with other young disabled people and contribute to development of a wider group, which is awesome. 

[chocolatefisher]

Mini documentary about a family of mother, father and triplet boys aged 13.  Steve Evans (dad) was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) seven years ago.   The mini documentary covers family dynamics and how MND has had a large impact on all aspects of family life as the boys become adolescents.

The physical and communicator role that Steve would usually play for his boys has been hugely disrupted by MND.  Many circumstances can lead to fathers not being present in the lives of their children.  MND has the extra barrier of deterioration, unpredictability (Steve has lived longer than originally thought) and carers needing to intrude on family time.  Enduring MND is a suitable title for a disease that provides many challenges for adolescents with an affected parent.