The Development of Adolescents

In order to connect with students and adolescent readers, it is important to understand what characterizes their development. When I think of development, I remember learning about the hundreds of changes a child goes through from birth to one year of age. The changes are numerous! The remarkable thing about this fact is that the human body goes through the same monumental change during their pubescent years. And while a newborn cries as a form of communication, the adolescent communicates their frustration, sadness, happiness, and angst in various ways.

Students develop intellectually, morally, developmentally, physically, and as readers.

Intellectual

According to psychologist Jean Piaget, students progress through different stages of cognitive development.  In short, children begin at a concrete stage of understanding and then later progress to understanding abstract ideas like theme, inferencing, and other critical thinking skills. Piaget says that this transition is made through life experiences and around the ages of 10 to 14 years of age.  As educators, we must ask ourselves how we can bridge the gap for some students who have not yet developed these higher order thinking processes.  Are the stories we are are reading abstract? If so, how can we use literature to create meaningful connections students can understand? Where are our students in their intellectual development?

Physical 

Students are changing in many different ways during puberty.  It is a time where you wish you could press the "Easy" button to address questions like, "Am I normal?" "When will I change?" "Why am I this way?" "Why is my body doing this?" "Why do I look this way?" Unfortunately, physical appearance commandeers the life of the teenager and one educators can facilitate these awkward moments in life is by knowing literature and what to read with the students.  As a librarian, I must know my collection to know how to connect with my junior high patrons and offer some insight to their parents through a book as well.

Developmental

Adolescents are also transforming socially - at home and in society.  

• Students are learning to get along with peers and experiencing changing friend dynamics.
• Kids are learning the aspects of having an easy relationship with the opposite sex. One can be friends with no boyfriend/girlfriend implications.
• Children learn the merit of working for pay. This is where they will start babysitting, ask for an allowance for chores, and try to acquire this obtain independence. 
• In their search for said independence, teens begin to break away from the idealistic view of a career and truly begin to question what they will be when they grow up. 
• Teens also begin to develop their own morals and values.  They begin to question the validity of their parents' values and norms.  They ask themselves, "What do I believe in?"
• As a result of the search for independence, the relationship with parents changes.  There is a separation that challenges both children and parents.
• Teens adapt to their constantly changing bodies.
• Adolescents must also define appropriate sex roles.  While these are ultimately dictated by the society in which they live, demanding control of where they stand is difficult.  Teens realize that there are societal expectations, but finding what those are exactly is another challenge.

Moral

Lawrence Kohlberg's theory regarding levels of morality is an adaption of Piaget's theory on intellectual development.  In short, Kohlberg's ideas describe three levels: preconventional, conventional, and postconventional.

• Pre conventional:  revolves around the idea of reward and punishment and that behavior can revert when this approach is not practiced.
• Conventional: follows rules in society, religion, or both.
• Post conventional: recognizes rules, but the need to preserve the human aspect of society prevails. Examples are civil disobedience, civil rights movement, and self sacrifice

Maslow's Hierarchy of needs displays what every person search for to feel fulfilled, teens included.  

It is vital to address these these needs when interacting with adolescents. Identifying the needs and addressing them through human interaction and when recommending books can significantly impact a teens experience.

Readers

People go through an interchangeable experience when being developed into lifelong readers. These stages include reading for fun, or experiencing unconscious delight and reading for the aesthetic experience. As readers, we also seek validation and a sense of belonging, which is why we would seek reading autobiographically. In order to find an escape or an inside look at how other people live, we'd venture into reading to for vicarious experiences. We also want to find our moral compass. What do we believe? Why are our beliefs right? This is called reading with philosophical speculation.  Reading enables us to develop empathy. With knowledge or insight into how others live, what they do, or other subjects and cultures, we wouldn't care about them. Lifelong readers not only read for self awareness, but also for enjoyment.

Reflection
People often think that the library is unnecessary or that the librarian does nothing but guard books and shush the library all day.  Nothing could be further from the truth; the life and job of the librarian involve knowing and tapping into how adolescents think, act, and develop.  This chapter has shed light on several things for me. Because I am able to identify the different areas of teen development, I will be able to address various aspects of education and will be able to cultivate my students as readers.