Welcome to the fifth and last lesson which is all about the transition from elementary age to adolescence!
Transition to Adolescence
As your child enters the adolescence stage, they are going to experience physical, intellectual, personality, and social developmental changes (clevelandclinic, 2018). Our hope is that this lesson will give you an idea of how you can help your child through this stage and what changes you should expect to see.
We would also love to hear from you in the comments about things that you learned as well as other helpful insights you have for other parents also going through this transition!
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Development Changes & Suggestions for Parents
Your child is changing and growing so much throughout this period of their life, so here is a list of some of the changes they will go through as well as some things that you can do as a parent to help them during this time!
These websites provided the information in the pdf above 12 Essential Tips for Peaceful Parenting Your Teen!
Developmental Characteristics of Young Adolescents - AMLE
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Middle School & High School
Middle School
The transition to adolescence includes the transition to middle school! The transition to middle school can be challenging for a lot of adolescents and their parents. William James College gives Ten Top Tips to help with this transition:
Be prepared for a roller coaster ride!
Know what is happening developmentally for your adolescent.
Know what to expect academically.
Know what you will see socially.
Treat your child with respect-even if he/she does not always treat you that way!
Acknowledge and encourage your adolescent's need for independence.
Be available to guide and advise your child.
Don't stop being a role model.
Keep your sense of humor.
Love your adolescent.
For more detail on each tip, visit: https://www.williamjames.edu/community/department-of-community-engagement/freedman-center/top-ten-tips-middle-school.cfm
High School
After middle school comes the transition to high school! According to an article, Helping Your Student Make the Transition from Middle to High School, from Info About Kids, the transition to high school is more challenging than other transitions, such as the transition to elementary school and middle school, for multiple reasons (Gelbar, 2018). First, there is an increase in academic demands; second, students have more responsibility; third, there is a big social transition; and fourth, they are experiencing a lot of physical and emotional changes due to puberty (Gelbar, 2018).
The article talks about how important it is for parents to support their children during this transition (Gelbar, 2018). Parents need to help their high-schoolers know that stress during this time is normal, encourage their children to participate in extracurricular activities, and set realistic expectations (Gelbar, 2018).
To read the full article and for more resources about how to guide your children through this transition, visit: https://infoaboutkids.org/blog/helping-your-student-make-the-transition-from-middle-to-high-school/
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Puberty
Another major transition that comes with the transition to adolescence is puberty! It’s important that children understand how their body’s are going to change, and it’s important for parents to understand all of those changes as well.
This article gives a great overview about what happens during puberty and may be able to help you answer some of your child’s questions: https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/puberty.html
Children may feel awkward or nervous talking to you about puberty, so this 7 minute video shares tips from teens about how they navigate or navigated puberty and what was helpful! This can help you as their parents to understand what they might be feeling and how you can help them!
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Dating
Dating is another adventure your child will most likely start pursuing as they reach the adolescence stage. It’s important for teens to practice healthy dating habits, but many are unaware of how to develop healthy dating relationships, resulting in mistakes and heartbreak.
To help singles develop healthy dating practices and relationships, John Van Epp, author of How to Avoid Falling in Love with a Jerk, created a course that helps people do just that. The course is called P.I.C.K. a Partner, or the “P.I.C.K. Program” for short. P.I.C.K. stands for Premarital Interpersonal Choices and Knowledge (Van Epp, 11). He developed the Relationship Attachment Model (RAM) which consists of five dynamics that each contribute some feeling of connection and closeness in a relationship (Van Epp, 20). The five dynamics are Know, Trust, Rely, Commit, and Touch (Van Epp, 21). Here is a picture of the RAM:
Please watch the video below, where we will explain the RAM in more detail and explain why following the RAM in dating is a good idea.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6ZJlur616M&t=1s
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Activity
It is so important to spend quality time with your teenager especially before they become independent and move on. AllProDad.com shared 10 activities that you can do with your teenager to connect and have fun! Try doing one or more of these activities and share how it went for you in the comments!
Get Active. Teens tend to have a lot of energy to get out, so go out there and get active with them. ...
Movie Marathon. ...
Hike, Camp, and/or Rock Climb. ...
Go to an Amusement Park. ...
Community service. ...
Take A Road Trip. ...
Photo Hunt. ...
Play Games.
Bowling
Let them decide what you do!
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Assessment of Curriculum
You made it through the last lesson of our online curriculum! We hope you enjoyed the content provided in our lessons and that you were able to learn something new. Life is full of transitions, and we hope you feel more prepared to navigate those transitions with your children.
To help us know how we did with our curriculum, please take a couple of minutes to respond to this anonymous assessment survey of our course: https://byui.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6FQsSYkuP23KX42
References
Anfara, V. A., & Caskey, M. (2020, June 5). Developmental characteristics of young adolescents. AMLE. Retrieved March 4, 2022, from https://www.amle.org/developmental-characteristics-of-young-adolescents/
Cleveland Clinic (2018). Adolescent development. Cleveland clinic. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/7060-adolescent-development#:~:text=What%20is%20adolescence%3F-,Adolescence%20is%20the%20period%20of%20transition%20between%20childhood%20and%20adulthood,average%2C%20than%20in%20the%20past.
Dowshen, Steven (2015). Everything you wanted to know about puberty. TeensHealth. https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/puberty.html
Gelbar, N. (2018). Helping your student make the transition from middle to high school. Info about kids. https://infoaboutkids.org/blog/helping-your-student-make-the-transition-from-middle-to-high-school.
Hannah, Margaret (2022). Top ten tips for the transition to middle school. William James College. https://www.williamjames.edu/community/department-of-community-engagement/freedman-center/top-ten-tips-middle-school.cfm
Van Epp, John (2020). How to Avoid Falling for a Jerk. Instructor Manual.
10 fun activities for teens and Dads. All Pro Dad. (2021, December 1). Retrieved March 4, 2022, from https://www.allprodad.com/fun-activities-for-teens/
12 essential tips for peaceful parenting your teen! 12 Essential Tips for Peaceful Parenting Your Teen! (n.d.). Retrieved March 4, 2022, from https://www.ahaparenting.com/read/parenting-teens
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