Parenting the Adolescent
Parenting the Adolescent View Full Description
It is often said that there is much similarity in adolescent and toddler development. In fact, some say that the toddler you had comes back as a teenager. Given what you have read about parenting the toddler (Week 3) and the adolescent (Week 5) describe at least one similarity and one difference and describe how parenting is both the same and different. Please note in your post the relevant developmental stages and how parents effectively meet them.
Parenting changes as children get older, offering new challenges to parents at home. School-age children spend more time away from home, and their interactions with others become increasingly complex. Parents maintain many of the same fundamental responsibilities with school-age children as they did with preschoolers. They need to continue to provide love and affection, to set age-appropriate rules and boundaries, and to support physical, cognitive and social development.
Topics to be covered include:
- Normal physical, emotional and social development in during the elementary school and early teen years
- Ways parents can support their child’s development during the elementary school and early teen years
- Techniques to help parents maintain positive relationships with their adolescents as they become more independent and move toward adulthood
- Techniques to help school-age children develop positive relationships with family and peers
- Ways parents can promote healthy lifestyles with school age children
- Effects of media use on children’s development
· Sleep
· Sleep helps attention, emotional well-being, and learning. Adequate sleep helps the body regulate its metabolic processes and weight control. Parents should establish a consistent bedtime schedule as well as bedtime routines to help children develop the habit of sleep. Parents who adopt positive and nurturing parenting styles support healthy sleep patterns in children.
· School-age children usually sleep independently; however, maintaining a normal bedtime routine is part of good sleep hygiene. Sleep hygiene includes a number of practices that support healthy sleep, like avoiding caffeine in the afternoon, having a cool, dark room, and a relaxing bedtime routine. For school-age children, this might involve a shower or bath, a snack, and reading time, either alone or with a parents. It is best to avoid screens, including smartphones and tablets, before bed.
· CDC RECOMMENDATIONS
· The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2013) recommends that newborns sleep between 16–18 hours per day. A preschool-age child should sleep between 11–12 hours per day. It is recommended that school-age children get nine to 11 hours of sleep per night. There is some room for individual variation between children, with some managing well on eight hours and others needing 12 hours a night to feel well. If a child is consistently sleeping less than seven hours or more than 12 hours a night, a consultation with a pediatrician is appropriate to assess their general health. Do keep in mind that children may occasionally vary normal sleep patterns temporarily due to illness or growth spurts.
NuNutrition
Children who do not have access to quality food perform poorly on tests of attention and memory. This lack of nutrition significantly affects learning. Both inadequate or poor quality food and too much food pose problems for children.
Parents should establish regular eating times and routines. In addition, parents should be certain that children are eating both breakfast and lunch, either at home or at school. Children require regular meals, and should have access to healthy snacks, within reason. For many parents, feeding children is a significant source of stress–mealtime battles are common and unhealthy.
Families help to create healthy eating habits when:
· They share regular meals.
· Have a variety of healthy snacks available.
· Avoid battles over food.
· Involve children in meal planning and cooking.
· Serve as a role model by making healthy food choices.
ASSISTANCE TO LOW-INCOME FAMILIES
If parents are unable to afford adequate food, programs exist in many communities to offer assistance. The SNAP or Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program is a federally funded program that provides money for food to families in need. In addition, local food banks and pantries can offer food assistance. School breakfast and lunch programs provide free or reduced cost meals to children, and in some low-income areas, dinners, snacks, or even backpacks loaded with snacks and food for the weekend are available.
Twenty to 30 percent of children in developed countries are obese (Brooks, 2013). Obesity is linked to significant health risks like heart disease and diabetes. The United States Department of Agriculture created the website, Choose My Plate, for consumers to have access to research-based recommendations on nutrition and physical exercise. The website contains nutritional and health recommendations from preschool-age to adulthood. The website also includes sample meal plans, grocery lists for shopping, calorie charts, and educational material to support lesson plans for educators.
trition
Children who do not have access to quality food perform poorly on tests of attention and memory. This lack of nutrition significantly affects learning. Both inadequate or poor quality food and too much food pose problems for children.
Parents should establish regular eating times and routines. In addition, parents should be certain that children are eating both breakfast and lunch, either at home or at school. Children require regular meals, and should have access to healthy snacks, within reason. For many parents, feeding children is a significant source of stress–mealtime battles are common and unhealthy.
Families help to create healthy eating habits when:
- They share regular meals.
- Have a variety of healthy snacks available.
- Avoid battles over food.
- Involve children in meal planning and cooking.
- Serve as a role model by making healthy food choices.
ASSISTANCE TO LOW-INCOME FAMILIES
If parents are unable to afford adequate food, programs exist in many communities to offer assistance. The SNAP or Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program is a federally funded program that provides money for food to families in need. In addition, local food banks and pantries can offer food assistance. School breakfast and lunch programs provide free or reduced cost meals to children, and in some low-income areas, dinners, snacks, or even backpacks loaded with snacks and food for the weekend are available.
Twenty to 30 percent of children in developed countries are obese (Brooks, 2013). Obesity is linked to significant health risks like heart disease and diabetes. The United States Department of Agriculture created the website, Choose My Plate, for consumers to have access to research-based recommendations on nutrition and physical exercise. The website contains nutritional and health recommendations from preschool-age to adulthood. The website also includes sample meal plans, grocery lists for shopping, calorie charts, and educational material to support lesson plans for educators.
· The Parent’s Role
· A child entering the teenage years goes through many changes physically, emotionally, and cognitively. Older children and teens experience the physical and emotional changes associated with puberty, as well as changing cognitive skills. In addition, children develop and change socially as they move through the teen years, taking on new roles and responsibilities.
· Parents have an important role to provide emotional support and monitor and guide thinking and behavior of their children. Thoughtful and loving parenting in the teen years can facilitate a good relationship between parents and their teens, helping to support their teens in the transition from childhood to adulthood. Parents also need to be prepared to step back and let their maturing teen explore independence and gain confidence—but with a safety net—until they reach mature adulthood.
SSchool-Age Children
School-age children, or children from six to 12 years of age, are growing up. They have a range of new skills and abilities, but they also raise new issues. Parents must now support them in relationships with peers and siblings, behavior in the classroom, healthy life choices, and engagement with the larger world. In these years, children learn their parents’ and family’s personal values, as well as begin to recognize the values of their society as a whole.
Parents need to continue to work to develop positive relationships with their children, and to support their children’s ability to form new relationships outside of the immediate family circle. Parents continue to exert a significant influence on their children’s development. Physically, children now have many of the skills they need to write, manipulate small objects, and move their bodies in space. They can now learn to read and do math, and are capable of complex thought. Social development continues, with new and more complicated relationships.
Children, during the elementary school years, begin to encounter and engage with the outside world in new ways. They become responsible for some of their own choices about physical health, including food and physical activity, and often have new access to a variety of media, including television and the internet
· chool-Age Children
· School-age children, or chi
lThe Development of School-Age Children
School-age children continue to develop; however, this may be less obvious than in past years. Development at this stage includes, just as it did for the toddler and preschooler, cognitive and language development, emotional and social development, and physical development.
Many of the most noticeable developmental…
