11/17/2014
When pediatric neurologist Jensen’s sons began exhibiting typical teenage behavior—impulsivity, risk-taking, slipping grades, and mood swings—her professional training prompted her to wonder not only “What were they thinking?” but “How were they thinking?” This well-written, accessible work surveys recent research into the adolescent brain, a subject relatively unexplored until just this past decade. The result illuminates the specific ways in which the teen brain differs from that of a child or an adult. As Jensen explains, while hormones cause some changes, teen behavior—even through the college years—is most influenced by the connections between brain areas still under development, including new brain circuitry, chemicals, and neurotransmitters. This period of growth increases both adolescents’ capacity for remarkable accomplishments and their vulnerability to stress, drugs, sleep deficit, and environmental changes. Chapter by chapter, Jensen covers essential topics: how teens learn; why they need more sleep; coping with stress; mental illness; the “digital invasion of the teenage brain”; and the biological differences between girls’ and boys’ brains. Speaking as one parent to another, she offers support and a way for parents to understand and relate to their own soon-to-be-adult offspring. Agent: Wendy Strothman. (Jan.)
The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist's Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults
Narrated by Tavia Gilbert, Frances E. Jensen
Frances E. JensenUnabridged — 9 hours, 1 minutes
The Teenage Brain: A Neuroscientist's Survival Guide to Raising Adolescents and Young Adults
Narrated by Tavia Gilbert, Frances E. Jensen
Frances E. JensenUnabridged — 9 hours, 1 minutes
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Overview
A New York Times Bestseller
Renowned neurologist Dr. Frances E. Jensen offers a revolutionary look at the brains of teenagers, dispelling myths and offering practical advice for teens, parents and teachers.
Dr. Frances E. Jensen is chair of the department of neurology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. As a mother, teacher, researcher, clinician, and frequent lecturer to parents and teens, she is in a unique position to explain to readers the workings of the teen brain. In The Teenage Brain, Dr. Jensen brings to readers the astonishing findings that previously remained buried in academic journals.
The root myth scientists believed for years was that the adolescent brain was essentially an adult one, only with fewer miles on it. Over the last decade, however, the scientific community has learned that the teen years encompass vitally important stages of brain development. Samples of some of the most recent findings include:
- Teens are better learners than adults because their brain cells more readily ""build"" memories. But this heightened adaptability can be hijacked by addiction, and the adolescent brain can become addicted more strongly and for a longer duration than the adult brain.
- Studies show that girls' brains are a full two years more mature than boys' brains in the mid-teens, possibly explaining differences seen in the classroom and in social behavior.
- Adolescents may not be as resilient to the effects of drugs as we thought. Recent experimental and human studies show that the occasional use of marijuana, for instance, can cause lingering memory problems even days after smoking, and that long-term use of pot impacts later adulthood IQ.
- Multi-tasking causes divided attention and has been shown to reduce learning ability in the teenage brain. Multi-tasking also has some addictive qualities, which may result in habitual short attention in teenagers.
- Emotionally stressful situations may impact the adolescent more than it would affect the adult: stress can have permanent effects on mental health and can to lead to higher risk of developing neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression.
Dr. Jensen gathers what we've discovered about adolescent brain function, wiring, and capacity and explains the science in the contexts of everyday learning and multitasking, stress and memory, sleep, addiction, and decision-making. In this groundbreaking yet accessible book, these findings also yield practical suggestions that will help adults and teenagers negotiate the mysterious world of adolescent development.
Editorial Reviews
Frances Jensen has brilliantly translated academic science and clinical studies…. A ‘must read’ for parents, teachers, school nurses, and many others who live with or interact with teens.
Marvelous…. Dr. Jensen uses her considerable expertise as a neuroscientist and a mother to explain the recent explosion of adolescent brain research and how this research can help us better understand and help young people.
A valuable resource for parents, youth workers, educators, and anyone involved with teens in any way. The book is engaging, understandable, and extremely informative.
A captivating chapter, ‘The Digital Invasion of the Teenage Brain,’ calls attention to computer craving and adolescent addiction to the Internet.… [A] sensible, scientific, and stimulating book.
Why’s your child so self-absorbed? Give him time, writes neurologist Jensen: Empathy comes with age.
Frances Jensen, a neuroscientist and single mother of two boys. . . delved into the emerging science of the adolescent brain [and] came out with provocative new insights for parents, educators, public policymakers and teens themselves.
It’s charming to see good science translate directly into good parenting.
At moments of extreme exasperation, parents may think that there’s something wrong with their teenagers’ brains. Which, according to recent books on adolescence, there is…. [Jensen] offers a parenting guide laced with the latest MRI studies…. Packed with charts and statistics.
Marvelous…. Dr. Jensen uses her considerable expertise as a neuroscientist and a mother to explain the recent explosion of adolescent brain research and how this research can help us better understand and help young people.
★ 12/01/2014
They can't help it—teens are in many ways unable to control impulses, make wise decisions, and understand what they do, explains Jensen (neurology; chair, neurology dept., Univ. of Pennsylvania). It's not willful; it's brain chemistry. By understanding relevant brain science, however, parents can find plans of action to help their kids through all the nuances of life in this fraught period. Jensen, with science writer Nutt, explains how teen brains are still developing and changing; nonscientific readers will find a lot of information here about neurology. Yet Jensen is also a parent and imparts deep concerns about the pressures of raising her two sons. Today's parents should not only "tolerate" their kids' behavior—they can use their teens' emotional outbursts and errors of judgment to help them learn, choose, and "wise up," she explains. Jensen supports later-morning starts for school days (teens need morning sleep) and describes exactly what tobacco, alcohol, pot, and hard drugs do to the brain. While parents should understand and use social media, they must set limits for computer and smartphone use. VERDICT Recommended for readers who enjoyed Laurence Steinberg's Age of Opportunity, this title applies new science to the frustrating dilemma of how to live with teenage kids.—Linda Beck, Indian Valley P.L., Telford, PA
2014-10-22
This book competently covers the details of adolescent brain development but offers few surprises and scant advice.It's not really news that the brain continues to develop well into the early 20s. Scholars and journalists have long written about the "unfinished" nature of the teen brain. Here to clarify exactly what that means is Jensen (Neurology/Univ. of Pennsylvania), the mother of two boys who have survived those fraught years between childhood and full adulthood. While the author shares a few stories about her sons' teen years, this is not a book of anecdotes. Instead, Jensen, with the assistance of Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post writer Nutt (Shadows Bright as Glass: The Remarkable Story of One Man's Journey from Brain Trauma to Artistic Triumph, 2011), lays out the way human brains develop: "back to front" with the impulse-controlling, executive-functioning circuits of the frontal lobe coming in last. If you ever doubted that this was true, the author's collection of study results will convince you. Meticulously documented and reported, the studies offer proof that it's not just parents who think their teenagers don't quite have it all together. Jensen ably explains neurons, synapses, neurotransmitters and so on, offering a vocabulary that provides scaffolding for understanding how the brain grows. The prevalence of medical terminology may engage some readers, but it could easily put off parents who pick up the book based on its subtitle. Individual chapters expound on the biology behind the many perils of the teen years—why it's such a prime time for getting hooked on drugs and what those drugs do to a developing brain, for instance—but parents looking for guidance on avoiding these pitfalls will be disappointed. Parents and teens may balk at the heavily risk-oriented perspective Jensen takes throughout, which gives regrettably short shrift to the more positive flip side of the teen scene: extraordinary creativity, energy and learning capacity. More at home in college classrooms than on parents' nightstands.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940170325276 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 02/03/2015 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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