WyldLife Wednesday: 7 Resources to Help You Understand the Adolescent Brain

If you’re a WyldLife leader, you’ve had plenty of opportunities to observe middle school kids in their natural habitats. You’ve experienced their short attention spans and watched them get their feelings hurt. You’ve seen them change friend groups several times in one week and had many a one-word text conversation with them.

But have you ever wondered why they do what they do and say what they say? When we understand the “whys”, it can help us to better care for them, relate to them and share God’s love with them.

Spend some time this summer getting to know what’s going on inside those early adolescent brains. WyldLife experts across the country recommend the following books and articles.

• Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain by Daniel Siegel
• Middle School: The Inside Story: What Kids Tell Us, But Don’t Tell You by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias and Sue Acuna
• The Primal Teen by Barbara Strauch
• “Three Reasons to Love Middle Schoolers” by Nancy Darling, psychology professor at Oberlin College
• “Middle School: The New High School for Moms” by Kelly Wallace, CNN
• Center for Parent/Youth Understanding blog and podcasts

And if you missed this CNN special last fall, it’s worth checking out too:

• “Being Thirteen: Inside the Secret World of Teens”

Got any great books or articles on early adolescence that you’d recommend to your fellow WyldLife leaders? Let us know.

Written by Julie Clapp.