Getting Ready For Middle School
So, you’ve got a 10 or 11 year old … wondering what to expect as you head toward middle school? Then you’ll want to check this video presentation of the recent Your Teen Special Event, Tweens and the New Rules of Parenting.
This event covers a wide range of issues relating to parenting tweens, from how to help tweens be successful at school to understanding their behavior at home — and lots in between (like puberty, friendship issues, technology, and more). Experts include: Pediatrician Dr. Alexander Namrow, parenting expert Amy Speidel, and Sara Stephenson, a former middle school director and now director of enrollment for Ohio’s University School.
Some examples of what you’ll learn about parenting tweens from this video:
Why do friendships change so much during this age?
This is a second autonomy for your children. The first is at two, when children realize your body is not their body. But when they hits this age, they are realizing your thoughts are not their thoughts. They get to choose what makes sense for them. This is the first time you don’t get to pick their friends for them. — Amy Speidel
What is the deal with executive function at this age?
There is a wide spectrum of abilities with executive functioning at this age. Children aren’t born with the skills to executive function, but they are able to practice. Games that require memory or fast thinking help with executive function. Our job as parents is to find out what your child needs when it comes to developing these skills and help them work on those. — Sara Stephenson
What should we expect from puberty?
Recently, there has been a decent amount of research that has found that brain is changing considerably during the teenage years. Specifically, we know the pre-frontal cortex (our are of higher reasoning) is not well connected with the limbic system (the area of our brain that controls emotions). Teens tend to be more emotional and more rewarded (by their brains) for taking risks and it can be difficult to tamp this down. —Dr. Alexander Namrow
To view the entire video, click the link above.
