Social

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Social Emotional Challenges of Adolescence

• Implications for EBD

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• Unhappy adolescents take it out on the easiest
  targets usually parents and teachers. When
  they make life intolerable for you, its probably
  because theyre finding it pretty unbearable
  themselves.

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A Review of Adolescence

• Physical growth
• 7 other key developmental tasks
• Feel comfortable with their bodies
• Become emotionally independent from parents
• Learn to think and express themselves
  conceptually
• Develop a personal set of values
• Form meaningful relationships with both sexes
• Define sexual orientation and decide whether to
  become sexually active
• Work toward economic stability

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• Physically puberty
• Emotionally begin to distance themselves but
  may yo-yo about it
• Intellectually
• Enter adolescence with concrete perceptions
  (right/wrong black/white)
• Rarely look beyond present
• Younger teens cant see long term consequences
• Older teens appreciate subtleties but still
  inexperienced and may act without thinking

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Milestones of Early Adolescence (ages 11-13)

• Worries about appearance of developing body
• Hormonal changes
• Asserts independence
• Rebellious, defiant
• Friends more important
• Sense of belonging
• Strong sense of justice, but sees in black/white
  and from own view

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Consequences for the Child

• Self-conscious
• General moodiness
• Experiments with dress, speech, manners to find
  their own identity
• Rude
• Friends and friends parents are the yardstick of
  belonging
• May seem intolerant - has difficulty compromising

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Milestones of Middle Adolescence (ages 14-16)

• Less self-absorbed and can compromise
• Thinks independently and makes own decisions
• Experiments with self-image
• Collects new experiences, tests boundaries, takes
  risks
• Builds a sense of values
• Identifies own sexuality
• Thinks abstractly, hypothetically
• Socially and physically adventurous

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Consequences for the Child

• More composed, equitable, tolerant
• More discriminating friends less important
• Style may change frequently
• May try cigarettes, alcohol, soft drugs
• Questions family values
• Dates, has short relationships, guards privacy
• Will discuss and debate
• May not follow safety precautions

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Milestones of Late Adolescence (ages 17-21)

• Feels like an equal adult in the family
• Almost ready to become independent and
  self-reliant
• Forms more stable sexual relationships
• Idealistic
• Involved outside the family (e.g., work)
• Its late adolescence when intellectual,
  emotional and social development catch up with
  physical development

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Consequences for the Child

• Parents may resent the child feeling he/she is an
  equal
• Leaves home
• May have a serious boy/girl friend
• May become involved in a movement, social or
  political cause extreme example is a cult
• Doesnt want to go on family outings, vacations,
  etc.

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Risk Taking

• What is it? Young people with limited
  experience engaging in potentially destructive
  behavior with or without understanding the
  consequences of their actions
• May be biologically driven social- emotional
  part of the brain (amygdala) develops faster than
  the cognitive-control part of the brain (frontal
  cortex)
• May be channeled productively working out,
  extreme sports with built-in safety requirements

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Thrill Seekers

• Injury or threat of injury makes no difference
• Adrenaline junkies
• Crisis ridden life
• Seek risk/thrills
• Addiction in family
• Possible consequences are irrelevant
• Wait until the last minute
• 30 of population
• Mostly males
• Genetic?

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Why Do Adolescents Take Risks?

• Some risk-taking is a normal part of adolescence
• Helps to define ones self (function peer
  affiliation, expression of ones identify)
• The problem is usually in degree experimenting
  vs. pattern
• Reasons romance of it, emulate popular culture,
  emulate adult role models

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Warning Signs of High Risk

• Withdrawal
• Progressive behavior
• Seeks novelty (Im so bored)
• Sensation-seeking
• Lack of self-regulation
• Sees violence as acceptable
• Knowing vs. Doing
• Contemptuous of police, laws, etc.

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Implications for Educating Risk Takers

• All aspects of learning environment highly
  stimulating
• No rote or regimented learning
• Fast pace, variable pace, discussion format,
  color media, open space, high variety, high
  activity, noisy, discovery learning
  dramatic/lively/extroverted teacher

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Girls vs. Boys

• Boys and girls are more alike than different
• Some gender-specific characteristics warrant
  attention
• Difference may be due to biology and to cultural
  expectations

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Girls

• Tend to relate to others earlier and more easily
• Inflict more emotional damage than physical
  damage
• Are far more uncomfortable with their bodies
• Need encouragement they are equal but also free
  to be female

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Boys

• Have a greater need for physical activity
• Fight physically, not verbally, and then its
  over
• Forge friendships around interests rather than
  emotional connection
• Have feelings, too

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Aggression in Middle School

• Types of violence
• Situational (gt40)
• Relationship (25)
• Predatory (8)
• Psychopathological (0.5)
• Establishes and improves ones status
• Protects ones status
• Improving and protecting ones peer group
• Bullying social power

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Function of Aggression in Girls

• Gain a reputation for toughness
• Power!
• Social identify and status
• Boyfriends are emotional possessions issues
  of ownership and control
• Refuge protection from abuse , male to female
  violence
• Gang sense of belonging, family, safety

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Implications of Adolescence Academics

• Structure routines and clarity
• Scaffolding reach student at his/her level
• Foster Engagement activities with a high
  probability of success

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Implications Behavior

• Structure expectations and meaningul
  consequences
• Support responsive, fair relationship with
  teachers guidance mentoring centers on success
  (not problems)
• Behavior problems as teachable moments (teach,
  retrain, reinforce)

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Implications Social

• Monitor social roles
• Monitor peer affiliations
• Understand the group, relative status (external
  and internal)
• Extracurricular involvement supportive
  relationships with adults and pro-social peers

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Implications Overall

• Provide opportunities to successfully fall and
  to get back up
• Consistency and communication across teachers and
  administration
• Address issues systematically to enhance success
• Intervention teaching, practicing, reinforcing

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Moral Development

• Kohlbergs Moral Development
• Carried Piagets work into adolescence and
  adulthood
• Robert Coles (Moral Intelligence of Children)
• Daniel Goleman (Emotional Intelligence)
• PREPARE Curriculum (www.researchpress.com)
• www.tigger.uic.edu/lnucci/MoralEd/

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Adolescent Psychology and EBD

• Most teenagers commit some delinquent act
• 85 dont get caught
• Its the degree
• EBD about 2
• Is it far outside normal adolescence?
• Match vs. mismatch

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Deciding Whats Normal

• If it worries you, ask yourself why
• Look at the context and real implications is it
  abnormal or simply maddening or objectionable?
  Is it disabling or just annoying? Is it
  disturbed or disturbing?
• Teens have mood swings is it more frequent,
  more severe?
• Contributing factors teens own personality,
  family situations and attitudes, low self-esteem

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When to Worry

• Dangerousness
• Pattern vs. Once
• Understand the cause/function
• Student is secretive you discover the issue

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Implications

• Cant see beyond the present
• Transition planning
• Other long-term planning
• Cant take the perspective of others
• Cant think straight
• Cant see how own behavior affects others
• Cant appreciate long term consequences
• Expulsion for life
• Pregnancy
• Crime

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Summary