by Purple Doodles

Created on: April 02, 2009

"Adolescence is a new birth, for the higher and more completely human traits are now born" stated G. Stanley Hall. But adolescence is not the end of childhood. It is a part f it. It is not the time to get to of the children. It is the time to watch over them than ever before as they refine and define their search for their identity. At this stage, the adolescent is ready to start the pursuit of emotional independence. He is ready to get introduced to moral, ethical and cultural issues. All critical issues in the overall scheme of life. Providing the right kind of guidance at this phase will light up the path that will carry the individual through his life.

What are the key characteristics of adolescence? What should we keep in mind while guiding them? How can we help adolescents live up to their full potential?

The Key developmental Requirement:
The most vital requirement of adolescence is the creation of the adult. In this stage, there is a conscious attempt to understand various social, moral and cultural facets with a view to carve out a place for themselves in the world. This is their search for identity.

Key Characteristics:
Adolescence is the search for identity. It marks the stage of great mental and social transformation where he starts to define his moral, economic, cultural and social values and examine his role in society.

Emphasis of learning
During Adolescence, the emphasis is on further refinement of the learning with a specific focus on how it fits in with the big picture of life. The attempt is to distill the learnings into a moral, social, economic and cultural code that will form the basis of his definition of identity.

Mode of learning
During adolescence, the intellect gets further refined, because of the cumulative memory, information and knowledge. It acquires several facets that had not developed earlier such as enquiry into moral, cultural and social aspects. The mode of learning is not only intellectually but also relational' related to the individual's search for identity.

Tools for development
During adolescence, the intellect manifested as the ability to make connections between different pieces of knowledge as well as the ability to make connections with the world as they see it, are the primary tools for knowledge acquisition.

Pace of development
During adolescence, the pace of development is dependent on the extent to which there is guidance with regard to helping the brain make sense of the world and put it together in a form that is interpretable

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