The Power And Purpose Of The Teenage Brain

I recently finished reading Brainstorm by Daniel Siegel.

**POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT**

  Rating: 4/5 stars

"This groundbreaking book shows parents how to turn one of the most challenging developmental periods in their children's lives into one of the most rewarding. Between the ages of 12 and 24, the brain changes in important and often maddening ways. It's no wonder that many parents approach their child's adolescence with fear and trepidation. According to renowned neuropsychiatrist Daniel Siegel, however, if parents and teens can work together to form a deeper understanding of the brain science behind all the tumult, they will be able to turn conflict into connection and form a deeper understanding of one another. In Brainstorm, Siegel illuminates how brain development affects teenagers' behaviour and relationships. Drawing on important new research in the field of interpersonal neurobiology, he explores exciting ways in which understanding how the teenage brain functions can help parents make what is in fact an incredibly positive period of growth, change, and experimentation in their children's lives less lonely and distressing on both sides of the generational divide."

What I expected out of this book was something rather harder and more rooted in science. The book jacket says it's based on the latest research, and I have no doubt that's the case, but none of that research seems to have made its way directly into the book. Instead, what you have is a very soft and results-based approach to the topic. So if you're expecting data on brain chemistry changes through the adolescent years then, like me, you'll likely be disappointed. Instead, you'll get instruction through analogy with concepts like "Mindsight" and the "Wheel of Awareness". This all seemed a bit soft to me, but I suspect that for the majority of the population, this sort of 'softness' is actually a ringing endorsement. Siegel has made a decidedly complex topic easily readable and provides parents with the tools they need to deal with a historically difficult period of parenthood.

Even more usefully, the doctor doesn't just dole out information but provides mental exercises the reader can perform to help internalize the lesson being taught and make it easier to implement personal changes. His text is also filled with abundant anecdotes from his own practice to reinforce the idea that the situations parents face are far from unique and have been dealt with successfully in the past. All in all, this is an exceptionally well-balanced book unless you're looking for something a bit more dense and scientific.

Check out Brainstorm, and discover what happens in the mind of an adolescent.

Happy Reading :)