“Friends and a social life becomes all consuming during adolescence. This doesn’t mean the family is being rejected. Instead, the teenager is simply transitioning through an intense period of change. The teen needs the family life to remain a solid & secure homebase, so that they can return to it for comfort and healing when the peer world becomes too intense or overwhelming”.

“Once you can view your teen’s behavior from this developmental context, you can depersonalize it. It is no longer about your teen’s rejection or manipulation; it’s an understandable and necessary stage in their journey to reaching their own, full potential as a young adult”.

- Lisa Damour, Ph.D.

Developmental is…

a framework that can be used to guide us in understanding adolescent cognition and behaviour by considering natural and healthy ways of transiting from childhood to life as a teen.  Includes consideration adverse experiences and its impact on mind and brain development

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Thinking about development is valuable because...

- adolescence is a time of social importance - family may fade into the background. A developmental framework helps us understand that distancing from the family to explore the world is necessary and healthy at this stage.

-it's supported by neurobiology. The part of the brain in charge of executive functioning (prefrontal cortex) does not fully develop until  mid to late twenties. This means that attention, complex planning, prioritizing, decision making, impulse control, logical and consequential thinking, are all brain functions that are coming online during this developmental period. This biological understanding gives context to the teen experience.  

- understanding the natural developmental path a child, youth, or teen is on, helps us better support them through their departure from childhood, and guide them in exerting their independence and in an appropriate and respectful way.