Teens: Adults in Training Nicholle Russell Public Health Nurse

2 Mission Statement Together with the Halton community, the Health Department works to achieve the best possible health for all.

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4 Teens who make a healthy transition to adulthood are… Prepared for work Prepared for intimacy and family life Prepared to participate in community life Prepared to manage their personal Health and Wellbeing

5 How do we get them there?

6 Understanding the Adolescent Brain

7 Brain Development Cerebellum controls physical or motor coordination Nucleus accumbens is responsible for motivation, low effort yet high excitement Amygdala identifies and controls emotion, react to situations with “hot” emotions, to mis-read facial expressions as a sign of anger Frontal Lobe – responsible for the complex processing of information

8 Left Side vs. Right Side ReasonCreativity LogicRhythm MathImagery ReadingDreams WritingEmotions LanguageSymbols AnalysisSynthesis

9 “Thinking” Brain Governing emotions Judgment Planning Organization Problem Solving Impulse Inhibition Abstraction Analysis/synthesis Self-awareness* Self-concept* Identity Spirituality The Frontal Lobes

10 Deborah Yurgelun Todd McLean Hospital Belmont, Mass (2004 ) Adolescents use the Amydala (fight or flight response) rather than the Frontal Cortex (used by older adults) to read emotions

11 The Problem Frontal Lobe Development Autonomy Average age of first sexual encounter in Canada drivers license

12 Made worse as group adolescent brains amp-up the levels

13 What do we know? Brain is not just about genes Teen brains are “under construction” Still developing into their 20’s “Thinking” brain develops last; emotional brain in charge Pruning happens; brain not working during pruning Alcohol and drugs affect teen brains

14 What’s good for the teen brain? Sleep Healthy food and drink Stress reduction Nurturance (praise, be positive) Monitoring Guidance (limit setting, role modeling, questions) Opportunities/experiences Practice for the “thinking brain” Tolerance of mistakes Avoiding Alcohol and other Substances

15 SCENARIOS What we THINK…. Affects what we FEEL… Affects how we ACT….

16 For more information “Teen Brain, Teen Mind: What parents need to know to survive the adolescent years”, Dr. Ron Clavier, 2005 “The Primal Teen: What the discoveries about the teenage brain tell us about our kids”, Barbara Strauch,