A journey into the teen brain

Parents of teenagers often wonder what has happened to their child's brain. They may be moody, not understanding or appearing to care about consequences, they may struggle to maintain focus, and may be very self-absorbed! Neuroscience educator and parenting expert, Nathan Wallis says during adolescence, parts of the teenage brain are "shut for renovations". He says understanding the changes that are taking place for the adolescent will help parents successfully navigate these important and formative years.Parents of teenagers often wonder what has happened to their child's brain.They may be moody, not understanding or appearing to care about consequences, they may struggle to maintain focus, and may be very self-absorbed! Neuroscience educator and parenting expert, Nathan Wallis says, during adolescence, parts of the teenage brain are "shut for renovations".He says understanding the changes that are taking place for the adolescent will help parents successfully navigate these important and formative years.Listen to the full interview with Nathan WallisWallis tells Kathryn Ryan some kids hit adolescence earlier than others, but it tends to be around the 13-14 age range."Pretty much, if you're living with a teenager, you know when it's happened."The brain and body both go through a transformative time as a child goes through puberty and, while the teenage brain may shut down for that period, it does return better than it was before."I always think, don't judge who your kids going to be as an adult by looking at them in the middle of adolescence because being an adult is all about having a frontal cortex and, during adolescence, that's shut for renovations. Who they were at 11 is typically much more like who they'll be like as an adult."The frontal cortex is responsible for complex emotions such as empathy which is why we often think of teenagers as being mean."It controls their emotions, so rates of suicide, depression, and anxiety will skyrocket during adolescence. It's that ability to regulate their behaviour, regulate their emotions, focus their attention - all of that is up there in the frontal cortex and that gets shut for three years to get this rewiring done."Wallis says the frontal cortex doesn't completely shut down - it's open around 10 percent of the time - and parents need to seize those moments to feed and nurture that part of the brain…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details