Working with teenagers is a challenge. Many adults ‘don’t get’ them. Part of the difficulty is a misunderstanding of what is going on in the period of adolescence. Catechists often wonder if they should approach them as big children or little adults. Clark, in Hurt: Inside the World of Today’s Teenagers, gives us a different perspective: ‘Developmental theorists have acknowledged for decades what the general populace has yet to comprehend, much less embrace: adolescence is not a blend of both child and adult, nor is it an expanded phase of either. Adolescence is a unique phase of life that must be understood and dealt with on its own merits.’ (p.27)
As catechists, we need to understand the specific developmental needs of teenagers. Behavioural psychologist John Santrock writes: ‘[Adolescence is]the period of life between childhood and adulthood… [The process] lasts roughly from 10-13 years of age and ends at 18-22 years of age. [However,] defining when adolescence ends is not an easy task. It has been said that adolescence begins in biology and ends in culture.’ (see Clark p.28)
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