The Adolescents

Observations on adolescents, how to understand them, engage and interact with them.

The present volume of our series deals with adolescence and adolescents.  It is true that much of what applies to a five-year-old applies to a fifteen-year-old, but it is equally true that adolescence does involve some real difficulties that are unique to this stage.  It is as if an adolescent is passing through a violent storm that needs special training and skill on the part of the adults around him/her.

An adolescent is a child that is approximating or has gone beyond puberty.  More specifically, adolescence covers three sub-stages: early-, middle-, and late adolescence.  Early adolescence starts at twelve or thirteen; middle adolescence starts at fifteen or sixteen; late adolescence lasts until twenty-one or twenty-two.  After this, an individual is a young adult.  You can say that adolescence parallels three educational stages: middle school, secondary school, and college.