Friday, October 17, 2014

adolescence : Social and Emotional Challenges in Adolescence

 NURUL FITRIYA BINTI SUKIMAN
PTM140716786
SECTION 08


Healthy Children > Health Issues > Conditions > ADHD > Social and Emotional Challenges in Adolescene.

Social and Emotional Challenges in Adolescence

Most teenagers have concerns about being accepted by their peers, but many teens with ADHD have come to expect some social rejection due to their difficulties with controlling their behavior and understanding others’ social signals. Social issues encountered in childhood can become worse in adolescence, with the intensity of any rejection or bullying increasing during the teenage years. This rejection can negatively affect both academic performance and emotional health—and can be, in fact, much more troubling to him than making poor grades in school. He also may appear emotionally immature compared with classmates, and sometimes he’ll be more comfortable interacting with younger peers or when spending time with adults who may show greater acceptance of his immature actions.

As with academic challenges, however, difficulties with social interaction can often be helped by having adolescents learn specific skills. You learned a number of ways to teach younger children how to interact positively with others, including role modeling, role-playing, analyzing interaction, and practicing new techniques. Now, in adolescence, your child is likely to experience new motivation to improve his social life, and advice about social issues is now more often sought from peers than from parents.

Friendships

Teenagers with ADHD can certainly have the close friendships that are important for their happiness and self-esteem. A teenager’s targeted efforts to increase the accuracy of his social perceptions and monitor his social interactions may make this easier for him. As he develops friendships, support this by allowing his friends to hang out in your home and help to provide the kind of supportive environment that facilitates all friendships. Observe how the friends relate to one another, and provide tactful feedback later if you feel that it will be received in a positive and constructive manner. Teenagers with ADHD need to be increasingly aware that friendships take organizational skills too—returning phone calls, arriving at meeting places on time, and following through on plans.
Conflict resolution.
It is important for your teenager to learn how to resolve conflict without resorting to physical fights, and how to avoid becoming the target of others’ aggression. Again, resolving conflict can be a difficult teenage task if his impulsiveness causes him to strike out when he gets upset. An important step in avoiding this problem is to identify his own anger cues and to brainstorm in advance about the kinds of positive solutions he can apply to future conflicts.

If this is an issue with your teenager, through discussions with you and peers; post-conflict analysis; and sessions with a counselor, therapist, or social-skills instructor, he can learn to “talk himself down” when he finds himself in a frustrating clash of wills (“I’m going to take three deep breaths and think about my best choice in this situation before lashing out.”). He can also practice conflict-prevention techniques, such as providing an alternative (“How about if we go bowling first and then see a movie?”), adding provisions (“OK, you can drive, but then I get to decide on the restaurant.”), or changing the subject (“I’m starving. You want to get some pizza?”).

Once your child has learned a few of these specific techniques, he may be surprised at how effective they are in helping him avoid the crises that used to disrupt his social life. If you are seeking counseling in this area, the most proven approach is through cognitive-behavioral therapy—this is a type of talk therapy that views behavioral issues as related to the interaction of thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. In cognitive-behavioral therapy, the therapist and adolescent will work on identifying and directly changing behaviors that are problematic.
 Work on Social Skills

As with other learning processes, your teenager can hone his social skills and interaction by

Developing a list of specific target behaviors to work onOutlining a step-by-step plan to address each oneReceiving consistent, tactful feedback from you, his peers, and his teachersLearning such techniques as identifying cues that set off his anger, analysis of others’ social interaction, social role-playing, etcGetting training in anger management or social skills, or treatment in individual or group therapy, when appropriateReceiving treatment for any coexisting conditions that may affect his social interactionGetting positive feedback for improvement in targeted social skillsStaying involved in rewarding prosocial activities

That said, it is also true that many people with ADHD continue to have trouble with certain social interactions throughout adolescence and into adulthood. Whether or not this is the case with your teenager, make it clear that you support him no matter what. Nothing will be more difficult for him than overcoming social rejection. It will mean a lot to your teenager to know that you will always be in his corner. Keep in mind that even teenagers who are socially unhappy in high school go on to find rewarding friendships in college or work situations.








adolescents: behavior problem


         Many adolescents today have problems and are getting into trouble. After all, there are a lot of pressures for kids to deal with among friends and family. For some youth, pressures include poverty, violence, parental problems, and gangs. Kids may also be concerned about significant issues such as religion, gender roles, values, or ethnicity. Some children are having difficulty dealing with past traumas they have experienced, like abuse. Parents and their teenagers are struggling between the youth's wanting independence while still needing parental guidance. Sometimes all these conflicts result in behavior problems. 

Any number of isolated behavior problems can represent adolescent problems and delinquency-shoplifting, truancy, a fight in school, drug or alcohol ingestion. Sometimes, kids can't easily explain why they act the way they do. They may be just as confused about it as the adults, or they simply see delinquent behaviors as appropriate ways to deal with what they experience. Parents and loved ones may feel scared, angry, frustrated, or hopeless. They may feel guilty and wonder where they went wrong. All these feelings are normal, but it is important to understand that there is help available to troubled kids and their families.
How do you know when to seek help?

What are the signs of trouble? Many adolescents get into trouble sometimes. A big question for parents (whether they be "traditional," single, step, or grand-parents), though, is how to know when a youth is headed for more serious problems, or when bad behavior is just "a kid being a kid." Try to focus on patterns rather than an isolated event. In other words, does the behavior happen repeatedly despite efforts to change it?

The patterns signaling the need for help include not only deviant behaviors by the adolescent, but also the presence of other problems in the family or tensions at home. For example, problems in the parents' marriage or frequent fighting or hostility among the family members can also be involved in the youth's behavior problems. The problem behaviors and other family issues can interact and feed off each other, so that it is hard to tell where it started.

Of course, there are also some obvious signs that indicate the need for immediate and effective intervention, including violence against other persons or animals, or when peers are involved in destructive processes (crime, truancy, drugs). Or, a parent may simply have an instinctive feeling that something serious is happening. An important first step to find out what is going on is to try to talk to the adolescent and other family members about what is happening, possible reasons, and potential solutions. Others who know the adolescent and family, like teachers or caregivers, may also be able to provide information about the youth's mood or behaviors outside of the home to help assess the severity of the problem.

Many factors put youth and families at risk for juvenile delinquency, though they do not necessarily cause delinquency. Such factors include youth attention and hyperactivity problems and learning disorders, volatile temperament, and even the early onset of puberty and sexual development. All these factors affect the way an adolescent feels and acts and also how peers, family, and society view the adolescent. Similarly, parental problems, such as depression, substance abuse, and domestic violence can interact negatively with a youth's developing path of delinquency. Rather than causing delinquency, factors such as these tend to place youth at increased risk, intensify the downward spiral, and in turn add to the difficulty in changing these processes for the better.
What kinds of treatments will work?
Once you have determined that you and your loved ones need help, there are many kinds of treatment that you should explore. First, there are popular group-based, residential, and "life-experiential" options, like survival camps, boot camps, and "scared straight" programs, which have had some limited success. Research indicates that the most effective treatments, even with very difficult youth, are programs and treatments that are family-based and multisystemic. That means treatment that involves the adolescent and his or her family, and that also addresses other aspects of their lives, such as the school system, the neighborhood, peers, juvenile justice system, and even employers. In other words, it is treatment that focuses on all the parts of the youth's life that shape how he or she views the world, emphasizing family and parental support.

Treatments that focus on the family can also be useful in helping adults develop their parenting skills, deal with stress, and work on marital relationships. Many parent aids have demonstrated promising positive results. Professionals, such as family therapists, are there to help the adolescent and family gain understanding of the relationship dynamics and background issues that may be influencing the problem, and come up with solutions.

Adolescences : Challange of Adolescences

 Zharif Safiuddin Bin ABdul Halim (PTM140716755)
Section 08

Adolescence is a period that extends over a substantial part of a person’s life. However, each adolescent experiences individual changes and growth at differing rates, with some moving through the adolescent phase quicker and more smoothly than others. Some adolescents have supportive families, others face this daunting period of their lives alone. Some adolescents may remain at home with their families, but their families are emotionally distant so the adolescent can feel as if they are “alone in a crowd”.
No-one can deny that for any one person facing changes in their lives in the biological, cognitive, psychological, social, moral and spiritual sense, could find this time both exciting and daunting. With the increase in independence comes increases in freedom, but with that freedom, comes responsibilities. Attitudes and perspectives change and close family members often feel they are suddenly living with a stranger.

Biological Challenges
Adolescence begins with the first well-defined maturation event called puberty. Included in the biological challenges are the changes that occur due to the release of the sexual hormones that affect emotions. Mood changes can increase, which can impact on relationships both at home with parents and siblings and socially or at school.

Cognitive Challenges
Piaget, in his theory of social development believed that adolescence is the time when young people develop cognitively from “concrete operations” to “formal operations”.  So they are able to deal with ideas, concepts and abstract theories. However, it takes time for confidence to build with using these newly acquired skills, and they may make mistakes in judgement. Learning through success and failure is part of the challenge of the learning process for the adolescent.
Adolescents are egocentric, they can become self conscious; thinking they are being watched by others, and at other times want to behave as if they were on a centre stage and perform for a non existent audience. For example, acting like a music idol, singing their favourites songs in their room, with all the accompanying dance steps.
Adolescents live in their private world where they may think they are invincible and cannot be hurt. However, this could also be because at their age, they have not had to deal with many deaths and the mortality of the human spirit is not a reality yet. This is all a part of the complex process of becoming a separate and unique individual.
Unfortunately, these beliefs can lead them to believe that no-one is capable of understanding them, or know how they are feeling. This aspect could have important implications for counsellors.

Psyhcological Challenges
The psychological challenges that the adolescent must cope with are moving from childhood to adulthood. A new person is emerging, where rules will change, maybe more responsibilities will be placed on him/her so that a certain standard of behaviour is now required to be maintained. Accountability is becoming an expectation from both a parental and legal concept.
During adolescence the process of individuation occurs, which involves the development of relative independence from family relationships, with the weakening ties to objects and people who were previously important to the young person, coupled by an increased capacity and societal expectation to assume a functional role as a member of adult society.
As adolescents continue their journey of self-discovery, they continually have to adjust to new experiences as well as the other changes happening to them biologically and socially. This can be both stressful and anxiety provoking. It therefore is not surprising that adolescents can have a decreased tolerance for change; hence it becomes increasingly more difficult for them to modulate their behaviours which are sometimes displayed by inappropriate mood swings and angry outbursts.
 

Adolescenes

Zharif Safiuddin Bin Abdul Halim (PTM140716755)
Section 08

Until now, a child’s life has revolved mainly around the family. Adolescence has the effect of a stone dropped in water, as her social circle ripples outward to include friendships with members of the same sex, the opposite sex, different social and ethnic groups, and other adults, like a favorite teacher or coach. Eventually teenagers develop the capacity for falling in love and forming romantic relationship.
Not all teenagers enter and exit adolescence at the same age or display these same behaviors. What’s more, throughout much of adolescence, a youngster can be farther along in some areas of development than in others. For example, a fifteen-year-old girl may physically resemble a young adult but she may still act very much like a child since it isn’t until late adolescence that intellectual, emotional and social development begin to catch up with physical development.
Is it any wonder that teenagers sometimes feel confused and conflicted, especially given the limbo that society imposes on them for six to ten years, or longer? Prior to World War II, only about one in four youngsters finished high school. It was commonplace for young people still in their teens to be working full-time and married with children. Today close to three in four youngsters receive high-school diplomas, with two in five graduates going on to college. “As more and more teens have extended their education,” says Dr. Joseph Rauh, a specialist in adolescent medicine since the 1950s, “the age range of adolescence has been stretched into the twenties.”
Reflect back on your own teenage years, and perhaps you’ll recall the frustration of longing to strike out on your own but still being financially dependent on Mom and Dad. Or striving to be your own person yet at the same time wanting desperately to fit in among your peers.
Adolescence can be a confusing time for parents, too. For one thing, they must contend with their children’s often paradoxical behavior. How is it that the same son given to arias about saving the rain forest has to be nagged repeatedly to sort the recycling? Or that in the course of an hour your daughter can accuse you of treating her “like a baby,” then act wounded that you would expect her to clear the table after dinner?
But beyond learning to anticipate the shifting currents of adolescent emotion, mothers and fathers may be struggling with some conflicting emotions of their own. The pride you feel as you watch your youngster become independent can be countered by a sense of displacement. As much as you may accept intellectually that withdrawing from one’s parents is an integral part of growing up, it hurts when the child who used to beg to join you on errands now rarely consents to being seen in public with you, and then only if the destination is a minimum of one area code away.
It’s comforting to know that feeling a sense of loss is a normal response one that is probably shared by half the moms and dads standing next to you at soccer practice. For pediatricians, offering guidance and advice to parents makes up a considerable and rewarding part of each day.

Thursday, October 16, 2014

Adolescence: Why does every girl want to be thin ?





 Name : Nur Alia Nabilah Bt Ibrahim
 No ID : PTM140716791



    Today , many young girls want to be thin and the strange thing is , many of them are thin but do not see themselves at that. Many girls treated for anorexia nervosa , a type of eating disorder that mainly affects adolescence nowadays ,feel like they have never been thin and their idea of themselves is not how others see them. They have an intense fear of gaining weight and thus, they limit the food they eat.


    Why do many girls today want to be thin ? A writer online blog wrote : "oh to be thin ! I keep reminding myself that there are other things I would much rather be an artist ,a writer , fun loved but then I see a magazine or a billboard and my wish becomes .. to be thin ." Many of the advertisements today would portray models who are literally moving "clothes hangers ,"human sticks that are covered in clothes parading down a walkway to music. But to the impressionable young women watching them , these models epitomize beauty and perfection because they are slim.Hence , these young girls want to be sucessful like these models and think that if they are thin enough , they could be successful as them.

     Another reason why every girl wants to be thin is because of influence and certain demands from society and families. For many individuals with anorexia , the destructive cycle begins with the pressure to be thin  and attractive. A poor self-image compounds the problem. We are living in a world where there is an ideal for thinness.Teenagers define themselves on how beautiful and thin they are. Sometimes , the success of one's social life is based upon such factors like weight . Young girls are constantly forced , degraded , demeaned by images flashing all around them of models thinner than they are. People too are constantly seeking new fad diets just to keep thin .Hence, it really does not help when people put such hard pressure on children to look thin to be perfect.

    However, not every girl seems to think being skinny is something  good. There are many young girls who have good head on their shoulders and realise that an attractive personality, being happy and having a sense of pride and accomplishment would definitely be better than being thin.This is true , i agree with this statement.


    Certainly, in our society today too much emphasis is placed on the importance of being thin. As we become educated we should be thinking less about how people look and we should place more importance on who they really are . Kate Moss and just about every other super skinny model are not really realistic to the rest society.
 

Monday, October 13, 2014

ADOLESCENCE

MUHAMMAD IFTAR MUBARAK BIN ABD SAMAT   (PTM140716772)

Idiopathic Scoliosis

Scoiosis in patients between 10 and 18 years of age is termed adolescent scoliosis. By far the most common type of scoliosis is one is which the cause is not known. It is called "idiopathic" or adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). Although significant ongoing research continues in this area, including the genetic basis for AIS, there are no identifiable causes for this condition today. Despite this, Ministry of Health have accurate methods to determine the risk for curve progression of scoliosis and good methods of treatment.

Causes

There are significant effort being made toward identifying the cause of AIS, but to date there are no well-accepted causes for this particular type of scoliosis. The vast majority of patients are otherwise healthy and have no previous medical history. There are many theories about the cause of AIS including hormonal imbalance, asymmetric growth and muscle imbalance. Approximately 30% of AIS patients have some family history of scoliosis, and therefore these seems to be a genetic connection. Many Scoliosis Research Society members are working to identify the genes that cause AIS, and this knowledge continues to expand at a rapid pace. Most likely, there will be many genes associated with scoliosis and each may be helpful in detecting scoliosis and determining the risk for progression of the curve. A genetic screening test, called the ScoliScore is available as an adjunct to clinical and x-ray information to determine risk of progression in Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis. It is currenctly used in Caucasian (North American, European, Eastern European, Middle Eastern) patients between the ages of 9 and 13 years with a mind scoliotic curve (less than 25 degrees). The stated goal of the test is to determine the rik that the curve will increase to 40 degrees or more. Thus far independent verification of the test has not been done.

Symptoms

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis generally does not result in pain or neurologic symptoms. The curve of the spine does not put pressure on organs, including the lung or heart, and symptoms such as shortness of breath are not been with AIS. When scolio begins in adolescence patients often have some back pain, typically in the low back area. Although it is often associated with scoliosis, it is generally felt that the curvature does not result in pain. Low back pain is not uncommon in adolescences in general. Many teens experience back pain due to participating in a large number of activities without having good core abdominal and back strength, as well as flexibility of the hamstrings. Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis generally does not result in pain or neurologic problem. If these symptoms occur, futher evaluating and testing may be necessary to include an MRI.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Adolescence : Challenges that teenagers face in life





Name : Nur Alia Nabilah Bt Ibrahim
No ID : PTM140716791

  The teenagers of today  face rapidly changing world with many challanges .They are confronted with many social issues in life . These young people are at a stage their lives where they have a sense of critical perspective in what they see across the world.Challanges come in various forms : neglect , peer pressuere , identify problems ,drugs ,eating disorders and others .Our young people need to be encouraged to grow to be productive citizens of the country but first ,we need to know the challenges that these teenagers face on a daily basic.

 It is generally believed that the teenage years are characterized by rebellion and confusion ,the need for social acceptance by one's peers as the teenagers struggle to define their identity to get a focus in life.This has proven to be one of the biggest challenges that teenagers will face today .They evaluate their performances according to the judgments of others and when they fall short , they are angry ,depressed and they blame themselves for falling short of the expectations of others . Young people ,  who dress differently , think differently .They act differently and may be consumed with self-reproach , anxiety and fear .They think that to be accepted ,they must be like others. They then struggle to be like others and often end up unhappy and stressed  because they are not able to keep up the charade.

  Besides peer pressure , other challanges faced by teenagers include personal matters of the heart .Because teenagers are include personal matters of the heart .Because teenagers are growing up between the stage of being not quite adults and growing up between the stage of being not quite adults and  not being children , they have a roller coaster of emotions buried deep within them .Being in love and falling out of love is a challenge faced by teenagers today .Although the teen years offer new experiences amd challanges that can be exciting , this period of time can also be stressful.The stress of adolescence is one of many factors that can make young people unhappy.Because teenagers face hormonal changes ,these can  affect their moods.To be able to handle the different mood swings is also challenging to the teenagers .Teenagers may become pressurized, stressed out or worse , be depressed.
  Beside that , the biggest challange faced by many teenagers is the need to succeed academically . Studies are a major challenge for most teenagers and this is by no means getting easier with the stiff competition in the world of education.Students are becoming smarter and the drive to be the best is the constant challenge faced by many teenagers.

To conclude , all of us need to recognize these challenges faced by the young people and we have to find ways to help them overcome their problems .I agree with this statement ,the teenagers who are going through difficult and tough times  need positive, caring people who can steer them to the right direction so their lives can be shaped into something positive and meaningful .Teenagers , like all of us , sometimes just need help and guidance and ears to listen their problems.