Page 44 - Meeting with Children Book

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contribute to this difference. The points that adults
are more able to identify errors in decision-making
while adolescents are well-developed in the area of
pleasure seeking and reward-related behaviors are
important to consider when meeting with
adolescents.

Generally, the adolescent developmental journey is to
separate from their parents in order to achieve
individuation, form a positive sense of self; develop
positive peer relationships; achieve a gender and
sexuality identity and set a moral compass as to what
is right and wrong.

What Happens when Adolescent
Development is Interrupted?
Just because the person in front of you is an
adolescent, does not mean that he/she will be
developmentally on track. “On track” means that the
young person has met his previous developmental
milestones and has had two parents who have helped
him/her to manage emotion regulation, have
corrected cognitive distortions, has aided in higher
level problem-solving strategies and have not
required their child (now youth) to align with them, or
serve adult/parent needs. Furthermore, the youth has
been able to use their emerging skills to rely on peers
to sort their emerging individuality and reality testing.
The longer the conflict between parents and the more
they have fought over time about “custody” of their
child/youth, the more the young person will suffer
interruptions to his/her normal development. The