If you are wondering what’s so special about 11-13 year olds with decision making, then you are probably not aware that they exhibit certain traits during this developmental stage that are important and sometimes overlooked. If you are parent, teacher or youth worker etc, the traits below wouldn’t/shouldn’t surprise you:
- Want to be independent
- Begin to assert their identity
- Challenge authority
- Form close peer relationships
- Can be easily influenced
These are not bad traits in themselves – they just want to establish who they are or want to be. However, I think it is important to harness them and use this period (developmental stage) of discovery to help them understand making choices, taking decisions and the consequences associated with them, so they can establish some boundaries to work within that becomes part of who they are.
Since by nature they challenge authority, one way of helping them understand the choices they make is give them opportunities to ‘express themselves’ and debate about issues that concern them and can easily relate to. This does two things: 1) they feel heard (this is important to them and 2) they get to hear what their peers think – this is crucial since they can be easily influenced by peer pressure.
This process helps them rationalise their thought process and helps them understand why they make decisions they do and the conseqences associated with them. You may say that children will learn about this through being parented properly – this is not always the case. What happens when the child doesn’t have parents or has parents that are ‘absent’?
This is a preventative measure for when they get older, and have to go on work placements, and it is not far off – 3 years to be exact. But if they haven’t been exposed to concepts of decision making and how to evaluate consequences at an earlier age, they are more likely to have poor problem solving skills, and lack the ability to make better choices.
The impact is significant and two fold – 1) the teens lack confidence and are often times unable to secure employment because they don’t meet the mark. Employers are looking for confident people who can articluate reasons for decisions and demonstrate problem solving skills. 2) Continuation of a high rate of youth employment. It is high now, but imagine what level it will be at in a few years without any preventative measures?
I see this happen 1st hand with the other programme I run called Shaping Attitudes for the workplace. This programme prepares 16-19 year olds on how to manage behaviour and relationships in the workplace. I pose lots of questions to ascertain why they think or act the way they do – to justify their behaviour and often times they get irritated because they are unable to articulate their reasons or have none at all. The challenge is clear. Please watch our short video:
(If you can’t see it, please click here: Why the Bina programme is important to students)
The Bina programme
I created the Bina programme as a resource for teachers and educators to use to address this challenge. It uses graphic illustrated stories centred on nine themes:
- Integrity
- Respect
- Search for excellence
- Dealing with disappointment
- Reliability
- Courage
- Loyalty
- Accountability
- Determination
Teachers and educators are able to use this framework to raise related issues particular to their students with the aid of the toolkit:
- PowerPoint presentations (comptible with all school whiteboards)
- Detailed lesson plans
- Exercise worksheets
- Pupils’ notes
You can watch the taster videos on the right handside and download the 1st theme: Integrity here:
Next time: We will look at 11-13 years olds and Integrity
