Adolescence

Adolescence is considered as a normal part of the human life span, connecting middle childhood and young adulthood. This period consists of three separate phases: early, middle, and late adolescence.

The adolescent years extend roughly from age 10 to age 22. It is common to mark the beginning of the teenage years as the entrance to adolescence. Most people consider that the onset of puberty, or the beginning of sexual maturity, is a sign of an individual’s passage from middle childhood to adolescence.

While the physical changes of puberty are an important indicator signaling adolescent development, many other kinds of other changes also occur during the adolescent years.

Although this developmental period of life needn’t be an uncommonly stressful time, adolescents do encounter stresses. Most adolescents are well-adjusted individuals not lacking in self-control and confidence. At the same time, it must be recognized that some adolescents exhibit signs of disturbance and can suffer from a severe crisis.

The origin of the word Adolescence is from the Latin verb ‘adolescence’, which means, “to grow up”. It can be defined as the transitional stage of development between childhood and full adulthood. It represents the period of time during which a person is biologically adult but emotionally not at full maturity.

It represents the period of time during which a juvenile matures into adult. Major physiological, cognitive, and behavioural changes take place during this period. During the period of adolescence, biological development and psychological development overlap. A person’s body undergoes dramatic changes.

A young adult is generally a person between the age of 20 and 40, whereas an adolescent is a person between the age of 13 and 19. Puberty has always been heavily associated with teenagers and the onset of adolescent development.

However, the start of puberty has had somewhat of an increase in pre-adolescence (particularly females). Adolescence has had an occasional extension beyond the teenage years (typically males) compared to previous generations. These changes have made it more difficult to rigidly define the time frame in which adolescence occurs.

Adolescence is usually accompanied by an increased independence allowed by the parents or legal guardians and less supervision.

Following are the chief characteristics of Adolescence:

(1) Adolescence is a period of great stress and strain, storm and strike

(2) It is a period of rapid change. There is one word which best describes it – change. The change is physiological, sociological and psychological’.

(3) It is said that there is a tide which begins to rise in the veins of youth at the age of eleven or twelve.

There is enough truth in these statements. These statements help the teacher in gaining an understanding of the psychology of adolescence. But a precise knowledge of adolescence is needed by every teacher whether he is a teacher of primary or elementary or the higher secondary school or a lecturer in a college.

The primary school teacher needs the precise knowledge about adolescence because his children will become adolescents as they pass out of the primary school. He has to help them develop skills and attitudes that will prepare them for this stage of development. The middle school teacher needs the precise knowledge of this phase of development because some of his pupils are entering adolescence. The high school teacher needs the exact knowledge because he has to deal with them. A teacher should know that the uniqueness of adolescents lies not in their adolescence. They are unique as all individuals are unique and as all children and adults are unique.

Some psychologists say adolescence is a period of rapid growth and perplexity. This is a half-truth about adolescence. In fact, the period is one of decreasing rather than increasing growth rates. Just before adolescence, you have a period of rapid growth and it is a period of ‘growth spurt’. But even in the pre-adolescence period, we do not have such a growth rate as we have during the prenatal period, or during the first year after birth.

There may be periodic changes in growth rates, but there are never such changes as may totally transform a person. Changes occur in adulthood and later years as they occur in childhood or in adolescence. No period in an individual’s life is more important than the other. Every period is equally important.