Rich Zeoli Talks To Temple Psychologist About Teenage Brain Development
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Rich Zeoli talked to Temple University psychologist Laurence Steinberg on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT about the immature teenage brain and the dangers posed by underestimating the time needed for further development.
Steinberg said teenager's brains do not yet have the same cognitive abilities of mature adults.
"It is still developing. It doesn't reach full maturity probably until the early to mid-twenties and the adolescent brain is immature in ways that often lead kids to do risky and reckless things."
He described how the advancement of various cerebral processes catch up with each other at their own pace.
"Different parts of the brain develop along different timetables...If you looked at parts of the brain that involve self control, the ability to not be impulsive, to think ahead before you act, to plan for the future, we would see better connections in that part of the brain in you than we would in your typical teenager."
Steinberg offered a few tips parents can follow to help the maturation process and limit reckless behavior.
"There are things that parents can do at home to help encourage the development of self control...It's a parenting approach that combines being warm with being firm. What we know from literally decades and decades of research on this is that kids who have been raised this way are better at self control, they do better at school, they're less likely to develop mental health problems, they're less likely to get in to trouble. The way that you raise your child does really matter."
Steinberg is author of the book Age of Opportunity: Lessons from the New Science of Adolescence.
