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Your Child's MindTrusting God's Design to Guide Your Child's Development |
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As we launch into a discussion about teenage brain development, let's review what we have learned so far. Neural networks that are wiring up during the first eight years of life are now beginning a process of pruning during the teen years. During this time, they will preserve the neural networks that they use the most often. By using neural networks repeatedly, we tell the brain to preserve that network because it is important. We continue this process of eliminating neural networks until the final adult brain is configured in our early twenties. Myelination is also occurring during this time. The myelination of the neural networks of the pre-frontal cortex is the task of the teenage years. This is the part of the brain that does our critical thinking. It is the part of the brain responsible for purposeful acts, judgment, creativity, problem solving, planning, impulse control and abstract reasoning. This is the reason that we do not allow driving independently until the ability to plan ahead and control impulses is developed. That is why we wait until early in the teen years to teach algebra and more complex math which requires abstract reasoning. The teenage years are years when the overall neural networks are pruning, the most important part of the brain for critical thinking is wiring up, physical growth is rapid, emotional changes and social needs take on new significance, and society as a whole tells parents to relax and let go of our teens. What we have provided for their development up to this point is significant because the pre-frontal cortex is an association area. It cannot directly receive input from our senses. Instead it pulls from the other areas of the brain in order to make its connections and make sense of the world. This is a time when parents need to stay involved in a humble and respectful way fully realizing that how our teens learn to solve and think through their problems during these years will have long-lasting consequences. It is our responsibility to keep bringing them back to the standard established in the Word of God as they make life decisions. Paul David Tripp in his book The Age of Opportunity says, "With love and a humble dependency on Christ, we need to take every opportunity to expose critical issues of the heart (fear of man, materialism, selfishness, lust, covetousness, envy, unbelief, anger, self-righteousness, love of the world, greed, rebellion, etc.) helping our teenagers look at themselves in the perfect mirror of Scripture." The teen brain is uniquely vulnerable to the development of addictions. The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Addiction at NIH teaches us that youth that start drinking before the age of 15 are four times more likely to develop alcoholism at some point in their lives than those who begin drinking at 21. www.niaaa.nih.gov. The National Institutes of Health also has a curriculum for teaching parents and teens about addictions. www.nih.gov. The prefrontal cortex is also one of the largest areas of the brain for processing music. It also has a variety of effects as discussed in the next section on Music. There is an audio CD in the Products section that covers 70 minutes on the teenage brain including addictions and music. This brief overview provides the backdrop for parents who need to understand that there is a huge amount of brain development taking place during these teen years. It is a time for us to stay involved with our teens as they face new life decisions and live in a manner worthy of imitation. |
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