How do adolescents develop?

It is important to remember everyone develops in their own way and in their own time.  There are so many different things going on with their body, they are constantly asking themselves "am I normal?" This is a very difficult time because it is a time of change. Sometimes physical reality gets in the way of everything else. There are many books that assure tweens they are normal and will get through puberty. In theory Piaget  talked about how we progress from a sensory motor stage to a concrete operational state to a more formal operational stage. His theory says kids begin to transition from concrete to abstract about age 10, but this has been revised to the age of 14. . It is important to think about the questions needed to ask kids about books as well as the books that will be offered to them.

Adolescent Developmental Stages 

• learning to get along with peers, tend to be friends with others that have same interests 
• relationship with opposite sex-boys and girls can be friends without being boyfriend/girlfriend
• working for pay-babysitting, mowing, chores around the house; pay =independence
• relationship changes with parents-start to pull away and develop their own beliefs
• finding a vocation-What is something I'm really good at? What do I want to be when I grow up? More serious thought to this, realizing that they need another alternative, when you aren't drafted as the Cowboys quarterback.
•  developing morals and values-knowing the rules/laws and deciding if you are going to adhere to them
• adapting to their physical body-get them to realize, yes they are normal because everyone develops at different times.
• defining appropriate sex roles-generally silent expectations by society

Morals and Values

• Pre-conventional:  Tends to be a reward or consequence for doing something. Children will follow expectations if there is a reward for doing so.
• Conventional: following rules of your society, religion or both
• Post-conventional: Laws are recognized but humanity is more important. 

Maslow Needs Hierarchy

Every persons needs start at the foundation of the hierarchy. If a person's physiological needs aren't being met, they aren't going to meet the others as you go up the pyramid.

Developing as readers

This is not a hierarchy, one can move through these stages.

• Develops empathy-means you know exactly how the person feels. Either you personally, or from a back you have read, can show empathy because either way you have been through the same thing someone else is going through
• Unconscious delight-to be so "lost" in a book that you forget the world around you
• Reading autobiographically-These books are like mirrors, reflect back our own reality. Readers like to read books that they can relate to, characters they can identify with.
• Reading for vicarious experiences-These books are like windows, you can look out and see different things. Readers will experience the character and learn the good and bad from that character.
• Reading for philosophical speculation-Morals and values-will you follow or defy the law
• Reading for the aesthetic experience-pleasure reading for the beauty and joy of reading