Page 30 - Dainfern Precinct Living Issue 10 2022

Today's Child

and falls later in the day than in adults. and younger children. Dopamine is relationship will help a teen understand
This explains teens being able to party associated with pleasure and curiosity. what kind of partner they want in life.
till the early hours of the morning. This is why teens are more likely to try
new experiences. Adolescents today are growing up in a
BRAIN DEVELOPMENT more open society, aided and abetted
From the day we are born and The willingness to try out new things in large part by technology. Thanks
throughout our childhood, the brain can be positive as it enables the to digital advancement, their access
builds connections between neurons. teenager to focus on their personal to the wider world is immediate and
It then starts to prune back (remove) development, assess their boundaries communication takes place at the
redundant neural pathways, allowing and acquire decision-making skills. For touch of a button. It’s also a time of
for more efficient networks. This process example, embarking on a romantic invention, flux and creativity, where
makes a child’s brain particularly
malleable and enables a baby to grow
into a toddler.

Certain perceptual and motor skills such
as language are stabilised long before
adolescence, making these skills harder
to learn after this childhood phase.
Still, the frontal cortex continues to
build and prune networks throughout
puberty and into early adulthood.
Frontal and parietal lobe development
continues and appears as increasing
amounts of white matter on MRI scans.
These developing areas are important
for enabling a person to regulate
emotions, problem-solve, maintain
attention and engage in abstract
reasoning. Intellectual stimulation is
vital at this age, when there is huge
capacity for learning.

Brain imaging shows that the areas
of the brain associated with reward
generally develop more quickly than
those associated with inhibitions and
self-control – which explains a lot! The
scans show greater dopamine activity
in teenagers compared to adults

28 DPL issue 10 2022