The Teenage Brain

WKCD (What Kids Can Do) includes information on how our students learn. Research shows us why teens act the way they do with behaviors such as “mood swings, surliness, impulsivity, poor decisions, insensitivity (or too much sensitivity), and more.” The brain’s frontal lobe, the area that affects judgment, is not fully developed until ages 25-30. As the brain grows, young people have difficulty making decisions quickly, don’t notice errors in judgment, have trouble identifying other’s emotions, and are “vulnerable to stress.” So—it’s good for all of us in education to remember that there is a biological reason for why teens are the way they are and that we need to be patient as we wait for their minds to mature.