Just as you may not run as fast or jump as high as you did as a teenager,your brain’s cognitive power—that is, your ability to learn, remember, and solve problems—slows down with age. You may find it harder to summon once familiar facts or divide your attention among two or more activities or sources of information. These changes affect your ability to focus, so you may find yourself getting more easily distracted than you were when you were younger.Hearing loss that often accompanies aging makes it more difficult to distinguish speech in a noisy environment. Because hearing then requires more concentration than usual, even mild loss of the ability to focus can affect speech comprehension.

Most people start to notice changes as they enter their 50s and 60s. Although these changes can cause consternation, most age-related memory and thinking problems don’t stem from an underlying brain disease such as Alzheimer’s disease. Instead, what appears to be a memory problem may simply reflect a slower processing speed and poor encoding and retrieval of new memories as a result of diminished attention. However, even though your brain may be slower to learn and recall new information, your ability to make sense of what you know and to form reasonable arguments and judgments remains intact.

Many of these limitations are reversible and related to poor sleep, but structural changes that take place in your brain as you age can explain some of these developments, too. Brain regions involved with memory processing, such as the hippocampus and especially the frontal lobes, undergo anatomical and neurochemical changes over time.

The result is that as you age, it takes longer to absorb, process, and remember new information. The natural loss of receptors and neurons that occurs with aging may also make it harder to concentrate. Therefore, you not only learn information more slowly, but you also may have more trouble recalling it because you didn’t fully learn it in the first place. With slower processing, facts held in working memory may dissipate before you have had a chance to solve a problem.

In addition, the ability to perform tasks that involve executive function declines with age. Many people learn to compensate for these changes by relying on habit most of the time and devoting extra effort to focus on new information they are trying to learn.

Even the aches and pains of getting older can affect focus. Pain itself is distracting, and some of the medications used to treat it also can affect concentration.

For more information on conquering distractions and finding focus, check out Improving Concentration and Focus, an online guide from Harvard Medical School.

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Rethinking Your Teenager: Shifting from Control and Conflict to Structure and Nurture to Raise Accountable Young Adults

by Darby Fox

Publisher: Oxford University Press (January 15, 2020)

www.Darbyfox.com

The teenage years. . . parents fear this stage, dreading it even while watching their adorable toddlers explore the world. When it arrives, they try to control their teenager, in turn causing their teenager to push back more intensely. It’s a natural instinct on both sides: teenagers are changing in every way while trying to assert their independence, and parents are faced with the challenge of coming up with rules, expectations, and standards for behavior without a genuine understanding of what is happening. But the result of this pattern is a parent-child relationship defined by conflict and reactivity–a breeding ground for stress, anger, and anxiety, all of which reinforce those same cultural stereotypes and worst fears.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. In this book, family therapist Darby Fox challenges parents to redefine the goals of adolescence by reorienting their focus from what they want their child to be to on who they want their child to be. Darby not only equips parents with the insight to understand the changes taking place in their child’s brain and body and support their adolescent’s bid for independence but also offers an approach that allows parents to engage their adolescent in a relationship instead of struggling in an endless battle for control. The book is organized around a series of persistent myths about adolescence, each of which the author tears down with a combination of cutting edge neuroscience research, developmental psychology, and her own mix of clinical observations and experience raising four children.

Darby offers a new model for the parent-child relationship, encouraging parents to let go of the attempt to control their teenager and focus instead on creating mutual respect, providing structure and nurture, and encouraging independence in their developing teenager. She walks through the keys to combining structure and nurture and teaches every parent how to connect with their teen while holding them accountable for their behavior. If parents approach teen years with the same thoughtful preparation, sense of awe and wonder, and responsibility that they do the early childhood years, it can be an enjoyable and rewarding developmental stage that deepens, rather than damages, parent-child relationships.  

In an interview on your program Darby can discuss:

• How to create win/win situations when a teen becomes upset.

• How to decode the language of teenagers in order to gain respect.

• How to buck the stereotype that dealing with teens is a headache nobody wants.

• Giving your teen the tools they need to make smart decisions instead of controlling their decisions

• How to debunk the myths of adolescence that make it more difficult to actually handle your adolescent child

• Understanding what is happening in your teen’s mind and body beyond the basics

• How to handle online learning

• and much more!

“Darby Fox is a true champion of her field. Rethinking Your Teenager illuminates the complex lives of teenagers in an in-depth yet accessible way. 

This book is a gift not only for parents but for anyone seeking to connect with and understand teens.” 

—Kim Messier, wife of NHL hockey legend Mark Messier

“Darby Fox reconciles both the practical and spiritual aspects of what it means to be a parent in the 21st century. 

This is not a parenting book. This is a manual for a more uplifting future.” 

—Habib Sadeghi, DO, author of The Clarity Cleanse  

ISBN-10: 0190054514

ISBN-13: 978-0190054519

Publisher: Oxford University Press (February 14, 2020)

Language: English

About the Author:

Darby Fox, LCSW, is a child and adolescent family therapist in private practice in Connecticut and New York. With over twenty years of experience, she is an expert on parenting, child psychology, and family topics. Appearing regularly on-air and in print media, Fox covers a range of topics, from parenting questions and discipline techniques to current trends in child development. She has also collaborated with Meath Media Group to develop a television series called Fractured Family with Darby Fox. Learn more about Darby @ Darbyfox.com and follow her on social media: IG  | Twitter

What Does Peace Mean To Darby Fox go to: http://goodnewsplanet.com/what-does-peace-mean-to-darby-fox/

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