The Adolescent Brain

Agenda for Today

This presentation is going to teach and remind you of the many ways the brain develops in kids through their adolescent lives.

Brain Development

Task Card Activity

Recap

The Differences in the Adolescent Brain

The Child’s Developing Brain Different areas of the brain mature at different rates,

which helps explain many of the intellectual and emotional changes seen in children, teens and young adults. While no two children develop in exactly the same way, scientists have been able to link certain developmental milestones to changes in brain tissue, observed by MRI scans taken repeatedly over years.

Red, yellow and orange patterns indicate undeveloped brain tissue, while green, blue and purple indicate a maturing of the brain.

While watching this slide show, pay close attention to the colors in the human brain.

4 year old Brain

6 year old brain

9 year old brain

13 year old brain

15 year old brain

17 year old brain

21 year old brain

Comparison of Brain Development

4 year old brain 21 year old brain13 year old brain

Here is the “Real World” Adolescent Brain

Things to Remember about brain development

• Every child’s brain develops at different times.

• All kids brains work differently depending on the environment they live in and the environment they are exposed to.

• There are so many changes happening in the brain, teachers and parents need to remember to take things one day at a time with these kids.

Task Cards

Let’s Make A DecisionObjective: The learner will be able to

understand some thoughts, consequences and rewards behind different types of decisions they make by talking and dissecting the task card of a real world situation they could be put in someday.

Directions1. The teacher will pick a task card out of the container.2. The teacher will read the task card to the class.3. The teacher will pretend they are an adolescent and have 30

seconds to decide what they might do in the situation.4. Once their decision is made, they will give an explanation on why

they chose that response remembering they are an adolescent not an adult.

5. We will then go through the Pro’s and Con’s of choosing their decision.

6. Once this task is finished, we will go through and talk about how peers would see your decision, how your parents would see your decision and how your teachers would view your decision. We would do this so the students will think more from other perspectives than just their own.

7. Once this has taken place, we can now ask the teacher if they would change their mind or not. If they did, we could ask why.

Example of a Task Card

You have been assigned to a group of students to work on

a science project and you don’t like two of the

members. What do you do?

Example of a Task Card

Your friend asks you to take money out of your

mom’s wallet so you can go and buy some candy at the store. What would you

do?

Recap

Bibliography

• The Child’s Developing Brain. (2008, September 15). Retrieved July 9, 2015.