1. Adolescence: A Time of Change
Students will be able to list 3 physical changes that occur during adolescence.
Students will be able to describe 3 mental changes that adolescents experience.
Students will be able to explain the emotional changes of adolescence.
Indian Hills Middle School

2. Adolescence: A Time of Change
The period from about age during which a child gradually changes into an adult.

3. Changes in Your Body:
During adolescence the body goes through many physical, mental, and emotional changes.
The reproductive system matures, adult features appear, and height and muscle mass increase.

4. Reproductive System Puberty:
Begins before you reach adolescence and ends during mid-adolescence, 9-16 years of age.
Puberty:
This is a period of time in a persons life when they become sexually mature and able to reproduce.
Puberty refers specifically to the changes that happen to your reproductive system.
The pituitary gland in the brain signals changes in the ovaries for girl’s and the testes in boys.
The ovaries begin to produce estrogen & progesterone for the girls and the testes produce testosterone for the boys.

5. Reproductive Maturity
The release of sex hormones causes girls to begin to ovulate and menstruate, and boys to begin to produce sperm.
Ovulation in girls and sperm production in boys signal reproductive maturity.
Each has the ability to reproduce children.

6. Appearance
The sex hormones also cause the development of secondary sex characteristics.

7. Secondary Sex Characteristics
In Both Girls and Boys
Voice deepens
Muscle strength increases
Body hair appears
Skin releases more oils
Perspiration increases
In Boys Only
Shoulders broaden
Hair appears on face and chest
In Girls Only
Breasts develop
Hips widen
Body fat increases

8. Height & Muscle Mass Senior Prom 8th Grade Dance
Around the time that puberty starts, the pituitary gland also increases its production of growth hormone.
Girls tend to get their growth spurt earlier than the boys.
Boys start their growth spurt later and they grow for a longer period of time.

9. Growing Pains & Engergy Demands
Rapid growth creates aches and cramps and at times you feel awkward and clumsy.
You should challenge your body with a variety of physical activities.
The rapid growth increases your appetite.
Choose nutritious foods to avoid excess weight gain.

10. Early Bloomers and Late Bloomers
Do you consider yourself an early bloomer, late bloomer or somewhere in between?
Age Range For Onset of Puberty 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Age
Boys: Onset of Sperm Production
Girls: Onset of Menstruation
Early Bloomers and Late Bloomers
Adolescents who develop at an early age & those who develop at a late age.

11. Improved Mental Changes:
Hormones control most of the outward physical changes of adolescence, but changes in the way you think and feel have more to do with changes occurring in your brain.
Between the years of 10 and 13 a dramatic wave of growth and development takes place.
The brain will actually “prune back” the brain cells and connections that you do not use.
Mental Changes
Improved Mental Changes:
Abstract Thinking
Reasoning Skills
Impulse Control

12. Mental Changes Reasoning Skills: Abstract Thinking: Impulse Control:
Is your ability to solve problems, make wise choices and make decisions based on added information.
Is your ability to think at a higher level and process ideas that involve complex ideas. Example: You understand your own hunger pains, but now you begin to think about the worlds problems of hunger.
Mental Changes
Teens have a tendency to react impulsively, doing things on a dare that may be dangerous to their health. As teens age, reasoning skills begin to put the brake on impulsive actions.
Impulse Control:

13. Amygdala: “Emotional Center” More active in young adults.
Frontal Cortex: thinking region of the brain; planning, judgment & memory
Cable of nerves that connects the two halves of the cerebrum. It aids creativity and problem-solving. It grows and changes rapidly.
Corpus Callosum
Amygdala: “Emotional Center” More active in young adults.
Cerebellum: responsible for physical movement, grows and changes dramatically.
The Adolescent Brain

14. Search for Meaning: Choosing a way of life that is right for you.
Search for Values: Establishing beliefs that are important to you.
Emotional Changes
Search for Self: This is a search for your identity; hair style, clothes, behaviors, seeking approval from others.
During adolescence, individuals start to define meaning in their lives, a set of personal values, and a sense of self.

15. Healthy Review & Questions
What are three categories of physical changes that occur during adolescence?
What is reproductive maturity? How is it related to puberty?
What are secondary sex characteristics? List 2 for males and 2 for females.
Describe 3 mental changes that occur during adolescence?
How do teens develop emotionally during adolescence?
Healthy Review & Questions