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Conversation with a Teenager

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Conversation with a Teenager

Many changes occur during the adolescent phase of a child's development. The brain

changes, and as they interact with society and acquire knowledge, experience, and social

demands, these variables produce unprecedented cognitive development. The changes in the

thinking of an adolescent can even exceed the more obvious physical change. The improved

cognitive skills and executive functions that enable teenagers to control their behavior and

thought are generally associated with the development of the prefrontal cortex area of the brain.

A conversation with a teenager about general life topics such as politics would reveal their level

of cognitive development in areas such as executive thought, intuitive thinking, and systematic

thought.

My apartment has a basketball court, but I have never really been interested in playing.

Then, three months ago, I passed by, and teenagers were playing; they had not noticed me, but

the ball rolled off to my feet. I picked the ball and playfully made a shot, and since then, we have

become friends, and I play with them occasionally. I talked to one of them about general life

topics; he is the quiet type, and I should have known it was not or lack of words. He was a

typical teenager dunking the ball dangerously, and his face would change whenever he got

cheered on, showing that it was getting into his head. I asked about his family, and he told me

that his parents are in the middle of a fierce divorce, and he does not know how it will end.

Interestingly, he knew which parent he wanted to be in the custody of; he wanted to be with his

mother because of the father's alcohol problems that had triggered the divorce.

I also asked him about what he wanted to become in the future. I was surprised to learn

that the child had not been living a normal life and may have spent time in conspiracy theory
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websites as he talked about the 'great reset' and that there would be no point deciding on a career.

I did not want to ask about dating, but just as we were about to finish the burgers and sodas I had

bought at the court, he apologized and told me he had to meet his girl who was coming back

from a church youth camp.

The conversation with the teenager revealed fascinating points about teenage

development. The boy had developed extremely systematic thought if he could bring up

conspiracy theory subjects such as the great reset. The boy had also developed a deep abstract

thinking capacity to prefer the parent he wanted to be with (Tyler, 2020). Thinking about

hypothetical scenarios about the doom that would befall the world at a future date is the very

evidence of cognitive development. His choice of girlfriend who was church-going could be

interpreted as intuitive thinking, having lived in a broken family (Tyler, 2020). Dunking of the

ball dangerously is a sign of invincibility fable that they could engage in risky activities. Finally,

self-awareness when conducting heroic activities was a sign of adolescent egocentrism.

The adolescent phase in the development of a person is one of the most radical periods.

Many changes in a teenager's brain impart immense abilities to them, such as abstract thinking,

systemic thinking, executive thought, and intuitive thinking. Apart from an increased capacity

for thought, adolescence is associated with other cognitive conditions: adolescent egocentrism,

invincibility fable, imaginary audience, and personal fable. In this paper, an interview was

conducted with a 15-year-old teenage boy who exhibited many of these qualities. The results

underscore the critical nature of the adolescent phase in the development of a child.
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References

Tyler, S. (2020). Cognitive Development in Adolescence. Human Behavior and the Social

Environment I. https://uark.pressbooks.pub/hbse1/chapter/cognitive-development-in-

adolescence_ch_20/